ANDERSON, IND. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology opened its Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball season with a 66-50 victory at Anderson University on Wednesday night. 

Senior Julian Strickland (Indianapolis/Pike) scored a game-high 22 points on 13-15 from the free throw line with nine rebounds to lead the Fightin' Engineer effort.  Junior Corey Povaleri (Deputy, Ind./Madison) came off the bench with a career-high 10 points to balance the attack. 

Sophomore Jimmy Miller (Indianapolis/North Central) pitched in with nine points.  Seniors Alec Houpt (Chesterton) and Jordy Martin (New Albany) also contributed eight points each.

Scott Schwieterman led the Anderson offense with 15 points and seven rebounds.  Max Mollaun added 12 points for the Ravens. 

Rose-Hulman shot 49% from the field for the game, hit six three-pointers and finished 20-27 on the free throw line in the victory.  

The Engineers relied on a 7-2 run to take a 12-6 edge on a basket from Miller with 12:52 left in the opening half.  Strickland pushed the lead to eight points at 18-10 on a three-pointer at the 9:18 mark.

Rose-Hulman's edge reached double figures at 22-11 on a score by Houpt with 5:09 remaining in the first half.  After Anderson closed to within five, Povaleri capped a 10-0 run with a three-pointer with 1:30 left, helping the Engineers build a 33-18 halftime lead. 

Anderson trimmed the margin to 11 points at 33-20 on a score by Brett Anderson with 19:15 remaining.  The Ravens continued to battle, closing within 40-33 with 12:15 left.

Another 7-0 run pushed Rose-Hulman's lead back to 48-34 on a layup from Strickland with 9:08 left.  Anderson closed within 12 points on one occasion, but the Fightin' Engineers withstood the rally to win the conference opener.

Rose-Hulman improved to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in HCAC play, while Anderson dropped to 0-7 and 0-1 in league play.  The Fightin' Engineers travel to HCAC foe Transylvania University on Saturday.