DECATUR, Ill. -- The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology women's basketball team dropped an overtime classic to the Millikin Big Blue on Monday night by a final score of 86-80.
After a Millikin three to start the game, the Fightin' Engineers responded with a 14-2 run to take a big 14-5 lead in the first quarter of play.
They would continue their hot start in the second quarter and would enter halftime with a 39-28 lead at the break.
In the third quarter, Rose-Hulman extended their lead to 19 near the end of the third quarter of action with a 59-40 lead, the largest lead of the contest.
After leading by 18 with 9:22 remaining, the Big Blue responded with a 20-6 run to cut the lead to 67-63Â with just 3:37 remaining. Millikin would then tie the game with just 12 seconds to go and send the contest to overtime.
In the overtime period, Millikin took their first lead since 19 seconds into the game and led for most of the overtime period until
Jamie Baum hit a big triple to level the score with 53 seconds remaining. However, the Big Blue came right back down the floor and drilled the game winning triple with 30 seconds to go as they held on for the 86-80 overtime victory.
After shooting 47% from the field and 38% from three in the first three quarters of play, the Fightin' Engineers were held to just 29% from the floor and 14% from three in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Baum led the team with 27 points and 7 rebounds.
Sophia Reese also added 16 points and a team-high 4 assists.
Julia Meyer and
Reagan Lorenzen also finished the game in double figures with 14 and 11 points respectively.
The 19-point comeback victory for Millikin is the largest comeback win allowed by Rose-Hulman in program history. The Fightin' Engineers allowed a 16-point comeback in the second game of the last year's season, a 64-61 loss to La Verne. Rose-Hulman led 57-41 with nine minutes to go in that game.
With the loss, Rose-Hulman falls to 0-2 on the season. The team returns to Hulbert Arena on Thursday night as they host the Principia Panthers at 7 PM.
