NC Indiana News

HCAC Tournament Heartbreak: Rose-Hulman Edges Spartans in HCAC Semifinal Round

After a hard-fought Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Tournament Semifinal game, the no. 4 seeded Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers advanced past the no. 1 seeded Manchester Spartans by a final score of 66-63 on Friday, February 24. 

The Spartans and Fightin' Engineers battled back and forth in the opening half of Friday night's game, tying the score up at 28 with just under two minutes on the clock. After retaking the lead with 1:21 left to play in the first half, a layup by Logan Willoughby (Greenwood, Ind., Whiteland Community) would give the Spartans the three point lead. Rose-Hulman would try to cut Manchester lead to one point at halftime, but the Spartans would hang on to take a 33-31 lead at the intermission. 

Manchester and Rose-Hulman would continue to battle it out to start the second half of Friday night's game. The Fightin' Engineers claimed the lead and extended it to 11 points with 4:55 left on the clock. Manchester would answer and bring the game within three-points with 47 seconds left to play, but Rose-Hulman would hang on to win Friday night's game 66-63. 

Miles McGowen led the Fightin' Engineers with 27 points and 14 rebounds. Willie Bowman added 12 points for Rose-Hulman. As a team, Rose-Hulman shot 45.9% from the field, 30.0% from three-point range, and 50.0% from the free throw line. With the win, The Fightin' Engineers advance to the HCAC Tournament Championship Game where they will face Anderson University in the at 6 pm on Saturday night. The game will be played at Manchester University, and the winning team will advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Ty Lynas (Crawfordsville, Ind., Crawfordsville) finished the night with 17 points for the Black and Gold. Quentez Columbus (South Bend, Ind., Adams) added 16 points, while Zach Sawyer (Columbus, Ohio, Bishop Watterson) pulled down a team-high 7 rebounds for MU. Sawyer also finished with 3 steals and 5 assists. As a team, the Spartans shot 40.0% from the field, 29.6% from three-point range, and 60.0% from the free throw line. 

Manchester wrapped up the 2022-23 season with a 16-10 overall mark and 14-4 HCAC record, winning a share of the regular season title for the first time since 2010-11.

Original source can be found here.