The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (6-1) pulled away from the Anderson University men’s basketball team (4-3) with an 87-72 victory on Thursday in Terre Haute.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The contest opened as a back-and-forth battle that remained within four points for the first 12 minutes, 9 seconds. There were eight lead changes and three ties during the stretch.
• Austin Lyons knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Ravens a 31-26 lead with 7:39 left in the first half.
• Rose-Hulman outscored Anderson 16-6 for the remainder of the half.
• The Fightin’ Engineers put together a 9-0 run in the first 2:58 of the second half.
• Rose-Hulman held an 87-60 advantage with 4:42 remaining, but the Ravens outscored the Fightin’ Engineers 12-0 for the remainder of the contest.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Rose-Hulman drained 35-of-59 (59.3 percent) shots from the field while Anderson converted 26-of-59 (44.1 percent) attempts from the floor.
• The Fightin’ Engineers hit 7-of-19 (36.8 percent) shots from 3-point range while the Ravens knocked down 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) attempts from the perimeter.
• Austin Lyons led the Ravens with 21 points from the field. He converted 7-of-10 (70 percent) shots from the floor.
• Gavin Dowling notched 17 points and four steals.
• Cade Gentry provided 11 points.

COACH OWEN HANDY’S COMMENTS

• I don’t know if it is possible to be encouraged when you get your rear end whipped, but I am pretty encouraged by the game this evening.
• There have been some common themes for us lately, and one of them is that we are a good offensive team when we take the right shots. We did as good a job tonight of attacking the paint as we have all year, but we did not consistently make the right decisions out of our paint touches.
• We defended well against certain ball-screen looks that Rose-Hulman showed us, but really struggled with the empty-corner ball screen early in the second half.

Maybe this is the wrong thing to say after a loss, but I am having a ball coaching this team. It is such a mentally tough group. They present a great attitude in all settings and are eager to be coached and taught. So we have a couple of things to focus on cleaning up tomorrow, and we’ll see where that gets us on Saturday.