TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology men's basketball defeated Earlham College on Sunday afternoon 66-56, advancing to the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference semifinal matchup on Friday, February 25.  The Fightin' Engineers will battle Franklin College at 7 pm at Hanover College.

A scoreless start to the contest was broken by a Zachary Jackson layup at the 16:47 mark.  Samvit Ram followed the basket with a solo 7-0 scoring run.  The RHIT defense held Earlham scoreless until the 14:58 mark.

Earlham bounced back with their own 8-0 scoring run before Rose-Hulman secured the 30-22 halftime lead.

The trend of scoring runs continued in the second half when Jackson spearheaded an 8-0 run.  The run began with Trey Wurtz began with a layup, followed by Jackson scoring two fast-break layups and finishing with a nice pass under the basket to Wurtz for another layup.

Following a Quaker 7-0 run, Rose-Hulman engineered an 11-0 scoring run to take a 61-50 lead, which included an emphatic left-handed slam by Terry Hicks at the 3:13 mark.

Hicks led the Rose-Hulman offense with 12 points, five rebounds, and a game-high three steals.  Samvit Ram and Dillon Duff each scored nine points.  Jackson and Isaac Farnsworth each grabbed six rebounds, tied for a game high. 

Rose-Hulman shot 55.6% (25-for-45) from the field, their second best effort of the season, including converting 50% of shots from behind the arc (4-for-8).  

Kolden Vanlandingham led Earlham with 27 points, shooting 7-for-16 from the field.  As a team, the Quakers shot 38% from the floor, their third lowest percentage for the season. 

Rose-Hulman improved to 15-9 overall while Earlham concluded their season at 10-13.  The winner of the HCAC tournament earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.