NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind.-- The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology men's basketball team traveled to face Manchester University on Wednesday night in HCAC action. The team pulled off a 21-point come-from-behind victory to defeat the Spartans with a final score of 73-70. This advances the team to 7-9 overall and 5-4 in the HCAC.
Bradley Harden was the spark for the Fightin' Engineers leading the team with 23 points shooting 5-8 from beyond the arc.
Miles McGowen recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Other double-figure scorers included
Jack Jenniges with 12 points and
Rocco Richie with 10 points.
Manchester got off to a strong start leading by as much as 21 points in the first half., and the Spartans had a comfortable lead with the score at 45-31 at the halftime break.
After trailing the Spartans 58-46 with 10:06 to go, the Fightin' Engineers put together an 18-4 run to take a 64-62 lead with 5:05 remaining. It was their first lead since 8-7 in the first half. After Manchester retied the game at 64, Rose-Hulman answered with a three from Harden and a basket plus the foul for Jenniges to take a 6-point lead, their largest of the game with 3:17 to play.
The Fightin' Engineers relied on strong free throw shooting down the stretch to secure the comeback win.
The 21-point come-from-behind victory is the largest comeback win in recorded history (Play-by-play stats began at Rose-Hulman in the 1998-99 season).
Rose-Hulman will return home to host Bluffton University on Saturday, 1/20 at 3 PM.
