Coaches Matthew Graves of Indiana State and Nick Sales of Rose-Hulman wanted to get a good look at their men's basketball teams in a realistic setting — in front of a live crowd — before their regular seasons start next month.
Both got exactly that Saturday evening in front of 4,125 spectators inside Hulman Center.
The Engineers gave ISU all it wanted in the first half and early part of the second half before the Sycamores used their superior NCAA Division I athleticism and length to pull away for an 81-59 exhibition victory.
"Obviously, I'm excited that we were able to come out with the win," Graves said afterward. "I think Rose-Hulman has an outstanding team. They're well-coached. I thought they played really hard and made shots early."
Actually, both squads made shots early.
Rose's Cole Pride opened with a 3-point goal from the top of the arc, ISU's Maguire Mitchell answered that with a long-range bomb from the left wing, the Engineers' Evan Gentile responded to that with a trey from the right corner and Mitchell replied to that with another 3 from the left wing.
After all of that impressive marksmanship, the score was tied at 6-6.
Indiana State jumped out to a 17-13 lead after a baby hook by Cooper and a layup by Alessio Calamita. But Rose-Hulman countered with a 7-0 run to catapult on top 20-17.
With 9:25 left in the first half, a Joey Schmitz 3 from the right wing boosted Rose's margin to 23-19. Soon after that, the Engineers' Christian Torres sank a pair of free throws and Pride followed with a trey from the left wing to push ISU into a 28-21 hole.
But ISU closed the half with a 12-2 run, highlighted by 3s from Mitchell and Chance Puryear, to bolt ahead 36-32.
Rose-Hulman never led again, although it did hang close for a while.
The visitors' Eli Sego connected on a 3-pointer from the left wing to cut their deficit to 42-37 with 16:36 left in the game.
A 3 by Meechie White, combined with an E.J. McQuillan free throw as the result of a Rose technical foul, provided Indiana State with its first double-digit lead at 58-47 with 10:12 showing on the Hulman Center scoreboard.
As ISU pulled away down the stretch, its largest lead — 22 points — turned out to be the final score after DeShawn Denson II connected on a 3-pointer from the right wing with 26.5 seconds remaining.
Cooper and Mitchell were the Sycamores' only double-figure scorers, racking up 22 and 19 points respectively. Eighteen of Mitchell's came in the first half, then 14 of Cooper's occurred in the second half.
"My teammates got me the ball in the right places," Mitchell said of his early offensive surge. "[If] I got a little bit of space, the ball's going up."
"We wanted to get a lot of different guys in," mentioned Graves, who used all 15 of his active players Saturday but some not until later in the game.
"We probably didn't go as deep into the bench as what I wanted to. … I thought our guys really battled the last five minutes of the first half and then in the second half. I'm really proud of the effort."
Meanwhile, Cooper emphasized that he and his teammates preached all week about "never underestimating an opponent" in regard to the NCAA Division III Engineers.
"It doesn't matter who you're playing," he said. "You've got to respect them."
No doubt, ISU's players and coaches left Hulman Center with a strong feeling of respect for the Rose-Hulman team.
"There's a lot of good [Division III] players who are tough and skilled," Graves pointed out. "The differences a lot of times are the 2, 3, 4 inches in size and the 20 pounds in weight."
The Engineers' top scorers Saturday were Gentile with 12 points and the 6-foot-9, 240-pound Pride with 11.
"I thought we executed well early," Sales told the Tribune-Star. "I thought we did a really good job of knowing what we were looking for. … We made the shots when we executed at a high level."
But after Rose cooled off in the second half, its shooting percentage from the field dropped to a mere 39.2 percent for the night.
"I think they did some things defensively and made some adjustments … and we weren't ready with those adjustments," Sales assessed.
Sales also expressed disappointment in his team committing 18 turnovers.
"I learned that we have to be consistent," he added. "We start off well and we have a letdown. We've got to stop relaxing. We've got to stay consistent."
If Sales gets his way, the Engineers should be top contenders to win the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
"It won't be a talent thing for us [if they don't succeed in the HCAC]," Sales explained. "We have the talent. It'll be a mentality/consistency type of thing for us."
ROSE-HULMAN (59) — Pride 3-7 2-2 11, McElheney 2-3 2-2 6, Gentile 4-10 2-3 12, Savovic 0-4 0-0 0, Smith 3-6 0-0 8, Torres 1-2 2-2 4, Sego 2-3 0-0 5, Aa. Snyder 0-1 1-2 1, Schmitz 3-5 0-0 7, Jenniges 1-2 0-0 2, Piontek 0-3 0-0 0, Toles 0-1 1-2 1, Rogowski 1-1 0-0 2, Tarpenning 0-0 0-0 0, Ay. Snyder 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 0-1 0-0 0, Kochalka 0-0 0-0 0, Peters 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-51 FG, 10-13 FT, 59 TP.
INDIANA STATE (81) — Cooper 8-10 6-8 22, Calamita 3-4 0-0 6, McQuillan 0-4 1-2 1, Gregory 3-4 1-3 7, Mitchell 6-11 3-4 19, White 3-4 1-2 8, Puryear 1-4 0-0 3, Paschal 0-1 2-2 2, Vlajic 1-3 0-0 2, Speckman 1-2 1-2 3, Thomas 1-1 0-0 2, Kaupanger 1-1 0-2 3, Denson 1-2 0-0 3, Hazelett 0-0 0-0 0, Land 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-51 FG, 15-25 FT, 81 TP.
Halftime — ISU 36, RH 32. 3-point shooting — RH 9-24 (Pride 3-4, Smith 2-4, Gentile 2-6, Sego 1-2, Schmitz 1-2, Torres 0-1, Jenniges 0-1, Piontek 0-1, Peters 0-1, Savovic 0-2), ISU 8-27 (Mitchell 4-9, Kaupanger 1-1, White 1-2, Denson 1-2, Puryear 1-4, Cooper 0-1, Calamita 0-1, Gregory 0-1, Paschal 0-1, Vlajic 0-1, McQuillan 0-4). FG Pct. — RH .392, ISU .569. 3-pt. FG Pct. — RH .375, ISU .296. FT Pct. — RH .769, ISU .600. Total fouls — RH 21, ISU 14. Technical foul — Gentile. Fouled out — none. Rebounds — RH 24 (Pride and Torres 4), ISU 39 (Cooper and Puryear 7, Calamita, Paschal and Kaupanger 5). Assists — RH 9 (Pride, Savovic and Sego 2), ISU 18 (Gregory and Paschal 4, Cooper and Mitchell 3). Steals — RH 4 (Sego 2), ISU 11 (Cooper 3, Calamita 2). Turnovers — RH 18, ISU 15. Blocks — RH 0, ISU 1 (Speckman).
Next — Rose-Hulman will tip off its regular season at 2 p.m. Nov. 7 against Wabash inside Hulbert Arena. Indiana State will welcome Charlotte to Hulman Center on Nov. 2 for a 7 p.m. season-opening clash.
