ANDERSON, Ind. -- The Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers traveled to Anderson University on Friday night, taking on Franklin in the HCAC Semifinal Round of the HCAC Tournament. The team fell short to the Grizzlies with a final score of 66-63.

Rose-Hulman was led by the HCAC Newcomer of the Year, Joey Schmitz, totaling 20 points in the contest. Both seniors were able to reach double figures in scoring with Simon Blair totaling 14 points and Miles McGowen totaling 12 points. Cole Pride led the team on the glass with a team-high nine rebounds. 

The game proved to be a competitive one with seven ties and eight lead changes throughout the entire contest. Both teams were knotted up at 31-31 at the halftime break after trading buckets back and forth. 

The Grizzlies had a one-point lead with the score at 55-54 with 4:15 remaining in the second half. Franklin put together a 6-0 run to make the score 61-55, giving the Grizzlies their largest lead of the entire game with under a minute to play.

An incredible shot by Schmitz from deep cut the lead in half to give Rose-Hulman a glimmer of hope with 48 seconds remaining down three 61-58. The Fightin' Engineers battled hard down the stretch with clutch buckets by McGowen and Schmitz but were unable to regain the lead and would suffer the loss to Franklin.

Rose-Hulman wraps up their 2024-25 season with a record of 17-10 overall and 13-5 in the HCAC.