Capriest Gardner gave Tech strong contributions off the bench on Tuesday night (photo credit: Emilee Philson).
Posted: Nov 21, 2017
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Illinois Tech men's basketball team looked to move to a perfect 3-0 on Tuesday evening with a road contest at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. Tech was able to do just that, downing the Fightin' Engineers 70-59.
How it Happened
- It was a back-and-forth early portion of the contest, as teams traded leads early and experienced scoring droughts. Both the Engineers and Hawks saw spells of nearly four minutes without notching a basket.
- The Scarlet Hawks looked to Anthony Mosley Jr. to provide offense down the stretch of the first half. The junior point guard delivered, scoring 11 points in the half's final eight minutes to help Tech take a 28-27 lead into the intermission.
- No team led by more than three points for the entire first half. This didn't change until two Max Hisatake free throws gave the Scarlet Hawks a 44-40 lead with 15:40 left in the second half. However, RHIT went on a mini 6-0 run to take a 46-44 lead two minutes later.
- Tech managed to weather the storm and grind out the defensive-minded contest to open up the game's first substantial lead. In a span of nearly six minutes, the Scarlet Hawks embarked on a 12-4 run to take an eight point lead (56-48) with 6:53 to play.
- The Scarlet Hawks used three-pointers from Capriest Gardner and Malik Howze to build the lead even further, going up 62-49 for the largest lead of the night with 3:11 left.
- Rose-Hulman would not go down without a fight, working to cut the lead down to five with 48 seconds to play. However, the Scarlet Hawks would get enough stops the rest of the way and make five straight free throws to end the contest.
Scarlet Hawk Standouts
- Coming off of his USCAA Player of the Week selection, Mosley Jr. had a season-high 24 points on 8-of-14 shooting. He also led the team with four assists and had two steals.
- Howze also was an offensive force, scoring 23 points on 6-of-12 shooting. He was also 3-of-5 from downtown and 8-of-10 from the foul line to go along with six rebounds.
- Hisatake scored seven points, added 12 rebounds, and blocked three shots.
- Gardner led the team with 20 bench minutes, scoring six points, grabbing three boards, and recording three steals.
Stats to Know
- Tech held the FIghtin' Engineers to 37.3% from the field while shooting 47.9% themselves.
- Tech had its best outside shooting game thus far, going 5-of-10 from beyond the arc.
- The Scarlet Hawks were outrebounded for the first time this season. RHIT narrowly edged Tech 37-35.
- Free throw shooting was huge, as Tech attempted twice the amount (28-14). Mosley Jr. and Howze combined for 18 of the team's 28 attempts.
Up Next
- The Scarlet Hawks will head to Kalamazoo, Michigan for a tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Tech will oppose host Kalamazoo to kick things off on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. eastern (12:00 p.m. central).