Griffins Fall Against The Fightin' Engineers, Kleekamp Nets Career-High 16

ST. LOUIS, Mo.—The Fontbonne University men's basketball team had its struggles to get its offense going against Rose-Hulman on Tuesday night as the Griffins fell, 83-57.

The Griffins (2-2), shot 43.1 percent from the floor, though went just 7-of-21 (33.3 percent) from downtown and 6-of-17 (35.3 percent) from the free throw line.

Individually, Jared Woodcock had a game-high 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting. Gus Kleekamp came off the bench to net a career-high 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting.

The Fightin' Engineers (2-1), ended the night shooting 48.4 percent from the field, but got it done on the glass with a 44-28 advantage, including 17 coming on the offensive side. RHIT's bench also came through with 57 points.

Off the bench, Eli Combs recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards. John Czarnecki had 14 points of his own.

In the first, Woodcock was on fire as he scored the Griffins first 11 points to make it 14-11 at 12:50. Later in the quarter, Kleekamp sank a 3-pointer of his own to narrow the deficit down to 26-21 with 4:37 to go.

However, the Fightin' Engineers closed out the half on a 10-4 run to take a 36-25 lead into the locker room.

Woodcock led the Griffins with 14 points in the first, while Kleekamp had five off the bench. RHIT shot 44.8 percent from the field and had a 23-13 rebounding advantage.

In the second, Luke DeLine hit his jumper to make it 38-29 at 17:43. RHIT went on to respond with a 6-0 run in two minutes and 27 seconds time to expand its lead out to 44-29.

Down 48-33, the Griffins got a bucket from Kleekamp and a 3-pointer from DeLine to put the team within striking distance at 48-38 with 11:26 on the clock.

RHIT went on to end the Fontbonne momentum as they answered with a 7-0 run to gain some breathing room at 55-38. They never let its lead get under double-digits the rest of the way and hung on for the 26-point win.

Fontbonne will now take some time off before returning home against rival Webster next Wednesday. Tip-off at 7:30 p.m.

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