Lexington, Ky. – The Transylvania men's basketball team could not complete a late rally, coming up one triple short of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Fightin' Engineers, 72-69 on Saturday afternoon at the Beck Center.
Trailing by 14 points with five and a half minutes to go in regulation, the Pioneers came back to cut their deficit to two points with eight seconds remaining and had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but Hunter Penn's corner three-point attempt glanced long, and the Engineers emerged from the Beck Center with a heartstopping victory.
The Pioneers dropped their second game of conference play by three points or fewer to fall to 0-2 in the HCAC and 3-2 overall. Rose-Hulman improved to 4-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play.
Transylvania was hindered by poor three-point shooting in the first half, connecting on 4 of 16 attempts from downtown while Rose-Hulman hit on 6 of 13 attempts to build a 36-27 halftime advantage.
The Engineers opened up a 12-point lead early in the second half, but Colby Napier sent in a triple, while Zach Larimore buried a pair of free throws, followed by another three-pointer from Brandon Cromwell to thin Transy's deficit to 43-36 at the 16:39 mark.
Rose-Hulman continued to have success inside, rebuilding a double-digit lead with 9:19 to go and maintained healthy distance from the Pioneers with under five minutes remaining in regulation.
Transylvania forced turnovers late and ignited transition as Larimore scored on a three-point play with 4:17 left. A block by Larimore on the next possession led to a second straight score for the senior, and Penn slashed inside and scored to cut the Rose-Hulman lead to 66-60.
The Engineers stretched their lead back to seven points with under two minutes to go, but the Pioneers scored five straight to pull within two points at 68-66 with 33 seconds left in the game. As the Pioneers tried to stretch out the game, the Engineers secured a 71-67 advantage with 13 seconds remaining, but Larimore quickly got to the cup for a score and a 71-69 game.
The Engineers went 1 for 2 at the free throw line after the Pioneers applied a foul, and advanced the ball into the frontcourt and called a timeout for a game-tying play. The Pioneers found Penn on the left corner for the tie, but the shot came up short as Rose-Hulman took the road win.
Larimore led the Pioneers with a double-double of 24 points and 10 rebounds, adding two assists and a block in defeat. Napier added 16 points, three rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block. Cromwell was the other double-digit scorer with 13 points on 5 for 8 shooting from the field to go with two assists.
The Pioneers shot 39 percent from the field for the evening while the Engineers hit 46 percent from the floor, including 50 percent from the field in the second half.
Transylvania returns to action on Saturday, December 11 at the Bluffton University Beavers in Bluffton, Ohio. Tip-off is set for 3:00 p.m. from the Sommer Center.
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