CHICAGO, Ill. -- The Rose-Hulman men's basketball team traveled to take on Illinois Tech on Saturday. The team came away with a big win, defeating the Scarlet Hawks with a final score of 73-72. This advances the team to 1-1 overall this season.
Rose-Hulman was led by an incredible performance from
Joey Schmitz, totaling a career-high 32 points on 11-18 shooting from the field and a stellar 7-9 shooting from beyond the arc. His seven three-pointers rank fifth in the Rose-Hulman school record books for a single game. Schmitz also totaled four rebounds and two assists.
Christian Torres also made an impact with a team-high 12 rebounds and nine points.
The game started off competitively with both teams trading the lead. Schmitz tied the game on a three-pointer halfway through the first half with the score at 15-15. Rose-Hulman then took the lead, putting together a 10-0 run to stand ahead 25-15 with 9:05 left in the first half.
The Fightin' Engineers continued to thrive offensively, ending the half on another triple by Schmitz to take a 13-point lead with the score at 39-26.
Rose extended the deficit in the second half with a made layup by
Jack Murphy to build their largest lead of the game at 17 points with a score of 55-38. The Scarlet Hawks battled back to erase the deficit and take the lead, 68-67, with 3:37 left in the game.
In the final two minutes, IIT led the Fightin' Engineers 72-69.
Nate Smith made a huge play for Rose-Hulman, stealing the inbound pass to break away for an easy two points and cut the lead to one with 1:09 remaining.
The team relied on a strong defensive stand to get the ball back with an opportunity to take the lead with 33 seconds to play. Coming out of a timeout, Rose-Hulman got the ball to Schmitz, who drove to the lane and drew a foul to head to the free throw line.
Schmitz hit two clutch free throws to seal the win and defeat the Scarlet Hawks with a final score of 73-72.
The Fightin' Engineers will return to action on the road in the Wheaton Tournament. The team will face UW-La Crosse in their first game of the tournament on Friday, November 21, at 5 PM CT and 6 PM ET.
