Published: November 30, 2008 10:36 pm         

Rose men's basketball falls at home

TERRE HAUTE — Having promoted two freshmen to the starting lineup Sunday night, Rose-Hulman men’s basketball coach Jim Shaw refused to use inexperience as an excuse for the Engineers’ 49-45 loss to undefeated Millikin University in Hulbert Arena.

Spencer Harlan of Terre Haute and Blake Knotts of Louisville made their first collegiate starts, plus freshman Jason Haslag of Linn, Mo., came off the bench to play 24 minutes. The 6-foot-6 Harlan posted a team-high-tying nine points and eight rebounds, while Knotts added seven points and seven steals and Haslag had six points.

Judging by Shaw’s postgame comments, expect to see plenty more of these teenagers in the immediate future.

“Those three guys are all going to play critical minutes for us,” the Engineers’ coach stressed. “I’m not buying growing pains. They’ve got to grow up right now… We don’t use that as an excuse. We learn and we go on.”

Junior starter Jeff McCartney tied Harlan for high-point honors with nine points.

A driving basket through traffic by Daniel Lowers put Rose ahead 6-4 with 17:06 to go in the first half, then the Engineers went more than 7 1/2 minutes without a point. When they finally did score again on Derek Simon’s 3-point goal, they regained the lead at 9-8 with 9:34 left before halftime.

Shaw’s squad seized a 19-15 advantage on a pair of free throws by McCartney with 2:01 remaining in the half, but Millikin answered with two baskets by Corey Mitchell to tie the score by halftime.

A follow-up bucket by the Big Blue’s Robert Burton increased the advantage to 21-15 to start the second half.

The Engineers never led after that, although they did force a 40-40 tie on a 17-foot jumper by Haslag with 3:23 left. But Tunde Ogunleye responded with a 3-pointer and two free throws apiece by Mark Patrick and Ogunleye in the final 31.4 seconds sealed the outcome for the visitors.

Ogunleye and Mitchell were the Big Blue’s double-figure scorers with 16 and 10 points respectively as they improved their record to 5-0.

Meanwhile, the home team trudged through a tough shooting night, connecting on only 15 of 58 attempts from the field (25.9 percent).

“I mean, we were 3 of 20 from 3[-point range],” Shaw noted after glancing at the final stat sheet. “We got better shots than they did… We’ve just gotta make shots, inside the arc and outside the arc. We got better shots, we didn’t turn it over too much and we held our own on the boards, but you just have to cash in on opportunities.”

Shaw also said the Engineers did not perform poorly.

“Millikin’s a good team,” he continued. “We have to have a little more poise coming down the stretch. Our young kids are going to have to learn under fire.”

Rose-Hulman (2-2) will play its first Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game of the season Wednesday night at Franklin, with tipoff slated for 7:30.



Millikin University 49

Player mi fg 3pt ft r a pf tp

Burton 26 2-7 0-0 4-6 6 1 2 8

J.Demby 26 0-2 0-0 0-0 6 0 3 0

Patrick 36 3-9 1-4 2-2 2 2 3 9

Mitchell 26 5-7 0-1 0-0 6 1 1 10

Ogunleye 29 6-12 2-4 2-2 7 1 1 16

D.Demby 14 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 1 1 2

Mott 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Bright 20 2-4 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 4

Warren 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 4 0

Thompson 16 0-2 0-1 0-0 2 1 2 0

Totals 19-45 3-10 8-10 36* 7 19 49

Rose-Hulman 45

Player mi fg 3pt ft r a pf tp

Rice 20 1-8 0-2 2-4 2 0 2 4

Harlan 35 4-12 0-0 1-3 8 1 1 9

Knotts 28 3-9 1-7 0-0 1 2 2 7

McCartney 40 2-8 1-3 4-4 6 0 2 9

Lowers 34 2-6 0-0 3-6 4 2 0 7

Simon 11 1-4 1-4 0-0 4 0 1 3

Haslag 24 2-9 0-3 2-2 4 2 4 6

Ricks 4 0-2 0-1 0-0 3 1 0 0

Crane 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 15-58 3-20 12-19 36* 8 12 45

Halftime score — MU 19, RH 19. FG Pct. — MU .422, RH .259. 3-pt. FG Pct. — MU .300, RH .150. FT Pct. — MU .800, RH .632. Steals — MU 9 (Burton, Patrick and Mitchell 2), RH 14 (Knotts 7, Lowers 5). Turnovers — MU 22, RH 14. Blocks — MU 8 (J.Demby 3, Burton and Ogunleye 2, D.Demby), RH 2 (Simon and Haslag). (*) Includes team rebounds — MU 3, RH 4. Att. — 170.