METRO ROUNDUP: Rose men rally from 21 down to beat Manchester
Jan. 18—Even a 21-point lead isn't safe against Rose-Hulman's men's basketball team.
The Engineers trailed by that total in the first half of Wednesday night's game at host Manchester, then rallied to beat the Spartans 73-70.
Also Wednesday at Manchester, the Rose women's team beat the host Spartans 73-57 to give both Engineer teams a road sweep of Manchester, a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference foe.
Rose-Hulman's men raised their records to 7-9 overall and 5-4 in the HCAC.
Bradley Harden led the Engineers with 23 points, shooting 5-8 from 3-point range. 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 started strong, leading by as 21 points in the first half. The Spartans had a seemingly comfortable lead at halftime, 45-31.
After trailing the Spartans 58-46 with 10 minutes, 6 seconds left in the game, Rose 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 answered with a 3 from Harden and a basket plus the foul for Jenniges to take a six-point lead, the Engineers' largest of the game with 3:17 to play.
Strong free throw shooting down the stretch secured Rose's win.
The 21-point come-from-behind victory is the largest comeback win since at least 1998-99, when play-by-play stats began at Rose.
Rose-Hulman hosts Bluffton at 3 p.m. Saturday.
In Wednesday night's women's game, the Engineers got their fifth win in the last seven games, 73-57 over Manchester. With the win, Rose-Hulman improved to 8-8 overall and moved into a tie for fourth place at 5-4 in the HCAC.
Manchester came out hot, leading 8-2 early and holding a lead for over six minutes in the first quarter. However, Rose scored on its final three possessions of the period to take a 17-15 lead into the quarter break.
The teams traded buckets to start the second quarter, and the lead never growing larger than three points until the Engineers went on an 8-0 run, capped by a pair of 3s from senior Ashley Black to put them in front 34-28 at the break.
The Engineers stretched their lead to 11 in the third quarter, but the Spartans closed the gap. Then, Black hit a 25-footer at the buzzer to extend Rose's lead to nine.
That 3 started a decisive 13-2 Rose run to lock down the win.
Black led Rose with 21 points and added three assists. Jamie Baum, Manuella Shomba, and Grace Roland all finished in double figures with 11 points.
Guards Sophia Reese and Emilia Diaz recorded career-highs in rebounds. Reese finished with seven points, nine rebounds and five assists. Diaz tallied four points and five rebounds in the win.
Columba Rodriguez also added her second-highest scoring output of the season with four points.
Rose-Hulman plays host to Bluffton at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Prep girls basketball
—Robinson 35, Paris 29 — At Lawrenceville, Ill., after scoring just seven points in the first three quarters, Paris unleashed a 22-point fourth quarter, but fell short against Robinson on Wednesday in the Little Illini Conference Tournament.
Paris (now 14-9) was led by Kailey Young's nine points. Graci Watson hit two 3-pointers. Katelyn Jones led Robinson with a game-high 16 points, hitting two 3-pointers.
