TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology ran its current win-streak to five games on Tuesday night following a 64-39 win over non-conference foe Birmingham-Southern. The Fightin' Engineers ran their home unbeaten streak to 28 games, the longest active streak in NCAA Division III women's basketball.
Rose-Hulman jumped on the Panthers early in the contest, outscoring BSC 15-6 in the opening period. Junior Taylor Graham paced the Fightin' Engineers early in the contest, scoring six of her game-high 15 points in the first frame. Rose-Hulman shot 6-12 in the first 10 minutes while Birmingham-Southern was held to just 3-13 (23.1%) shooting.
Birmingham-Southern tightened the game up following a 13-9 run in the second quarter that drew the Panthers within five points, 24-19 at the 4:00 mark. A veteran Rose-Hulman squad answered right back with an 11-1 run of their own to close out the quarter. The run was highlighted by a flurry of triples from Taylor Graham and Sophie Brooks. At the half Rose-Hulman led 35-20. The Fightin' Engineers shot 12-27 (44.4%) in the first half and RHIT was 5-8 (62.5%) from three. Birmingham-Southern was limited to 38.1% (8-21) shooting in the first half.
Rose and Birmingham-Southern played nearly even in the third quarter and the Fightin' Engineers managed to outscore the Panthers 15-13. Rose-Hulman stepped up defensively in the final period of play, holding the Panthers to just six points. In the fourth quarter the Fightin' Engineers outpaced BSC 14-6. Rose-Hulman would build its largest lead of the evening of 25 points on the team's final offensive possession when freshman Cassie Utley buried a jumper from the left corner off a nice pass from Morgan Brown with 25 seconds left to play in the game.
On the night Rose-Hulman shot 23-54 (42.6%) from the floor and the team was 6-12 from three-point territory. Rose-Hulman also knocked down 12-16 free throw attempts. RHIT owned the boards, outrebounding the Panthers 39-20. Junior Taylor Graham led a very balanced attack for Rose-Hulman as she was the only Fightin' Engineer to score in double figures, posting a season-high 15 points in the win. Graham went 5-7 from the field, 2-4 from three and 3-4 from the charity stripe. Senior Lindsey Fagerberg added eight points and seven rebounds. Junior Ally Bromenschenkel scored eight points and hauled in a season-high 13 rebounds. She added four assists. Sophie Brooks scored a career-high nine points on 4-5 shooting in 27 minutes off the bench. In total, 10 different Engineers scored a basket.
Rose-Hulman limited their opponent to just 13-38 (34.2%) shooting. The Panthers made only two of seven three-point attempts and were pressured into 19 turnovers. Elizabeth Philpot led BSC with 10 points and seven rebounds.
RHIT improved to 7-3 on the season while Birmingham-Southern fell to 3-3. Rose-Hulman will return to Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday December 16 at 2 p.m. when the team welcomes Manchester University to Hulbert Arena.
