By: Colton Steiner
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The Bluffton University men hit the road with hopes of sealing their ticket into the HCAC Tournament when they faced off against the Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers. With their magic number still being one after Manchester would beat Earlham 93-84, the Beavers need a win over Anderson or a Manchester loss to Franklin to continue into post-season play. After a first half that went back and forth, the Fighting Engineers would ride the home-court momentum and pull away late to knock off the Beavers, 79-66. The loss drops Bluffton to an overall record of 6-18 and a conference mark of 5-12 while Rose-Hulman improved to 15-9 on the season and 12-5 in the HCAC.
Senior guard Ian Snelling (Erlanger, Ky./Dixie Heights) would get the Beavers going early, hitting a triple out of the gate to put the visitors up 3-2 a little over a minute into the ball game. After a jumper from Cam Rogers (Cincinnati/Cincinnati Christian) that gave Bluffton a 10-7 lead, the Fightin' Engineers would pop off for a 12-0 run before Sihr Sumner (Delaware/Rutherford B. Hayes) would end the spurt with a layup which cut the deficit to seven.
Rose-Hulman would go up 34-22, but a 7-0 run from the visitors that was capped off with a Connor Martin (Holland/Springfield) fastbreak layup, would bring the score to 34-27 with just 4:26 left in the half. The Beavers offense was cruising and they would be able to turn the contest into a one-possession affair after Michael Stammen (Versailles) drained a pair of free throws to cut the Fightin' Engineers lead to 36-33 with only 2:27 remaining in the half. Following a layup from the home team, Bluffton managed to close the half with back-to-back buckets and when Nevin Robson (Kenton/Hardin Northern) hit a layup just before time expired, the Beavers would go into the break trailing just 38-37.
Afer a jumper from Nevin Robson at 17:16 off an assist from Michael Stammen, Rose-Hulman managed to open an nine-point spread (53-44) with under 15 to play in the contest. The Beavers were able to answer with back-to-back threes from Sihr Sumner and Michael Stammen, making it a two-point game, 55-53. Following an exchange of buckets, Bluffton took advantage of a steal from Nevin Robson when Sihr Sumner slammed home a fast break dunk for the visitor's first lead since the first half, going up 61-59 with just six minutes left to play. The Beaver offense would then hit a wall, as Rose-Hulman would close the contest out on a 20-5 jag for a 79-66 victory.
Sihr Sumner would lead the charge for the Beavers, scoring a team-high 13 on an efficient 6-of-8 shooting performance to go along with four rebounds. Connor Martin netted 12 and Ian Snelling added 11 while sneaking away with three steals. Dishing out a team-high six assists was Michael Stammen who tallied 10 markers while Nevin Robson paced the team in total rebounds with six.
Bluffton managed to hit 46.4 percent (26-of-56) for the game while going 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) from deep, but a 40 percent (12-of-30) mark from the floor in the second half proved critical in the loss. The Beavers managed to have a 23-12 advantage in points off the bench despite the home team notching a 23-15 edge in points off turnovers.
In order for the Beavers to get into the HCAC Tournament, they will need to win or have Manchester lose in game 18 of the HCAC season. Next up for the Bluffton men is a road contest at Anderson on Wednesday, Feb. 19, with a tip-off set for 7:30 p.m.
-BEAVERS-