Hillsdale splits final non-conference games

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Hillsdale splits final non-conference games
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Junior guard Stedman Lowry led the Charger offense on Saturday with 21 points. (Photo: Brendan Miller / Hillsdale Collegian)

The Hillsdale College men’s basketball team wrapped up its non-conference schedule last weekend against its toughest opposition of the season — so far. Thursday, the Chargers will take on the No. 2 team in the country. 

The Chargers knocked off the Carson-Newman Eagles 73-61 on Friday before falling to the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers 76-62 on the second day of a back-to-back Saturday. Hillsdale will open its GLIAC schedule tonight at 8 p.m. on the road against the No. 2 Saginaw Valley Cardinals. The Chargers hope the lessons learned last weekend help them earn what would be their biggest win of the season.

“The way that we played Friday, we demonstrated that we can play really with anybody,” head coach John Tharp said. “But as soon as we get away from who we are or what we are, then we’re in big trouble. So we’ve just got to stay within our principles.”

Carson-Newman entered Friday’s game against the Chargers coming off a 111-109 overtime win over Lincoln Memorial — a team that lost in the D-II national championship game last season and was ranked second in the nation before losing to Carson-Newman.

“Carson-Newman a really good team,” said junior guard Stedman Lowry, who scored 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting. “The fact that we were able to get a win against them was huge.”

The Chargers fell behind 10-0 in under three minutes, but tied the game at 21 with 9:56 remaining in the first half. Hillsdale led 41-30 at halftime.

“The first four or five minutes of that game, there was a little bit of an adjustment to their speed and athleticism,” Tharp said. “For whatever reason, we were just a little tight.”

Carson-Newman was averaging over 100 points per game before playing Hillsdale. The Chargers held the Eagles to 61 points on 47 percent field-goal shooting.

“We really settled in and we controlled the tempo, which we had to do against that team,” Tharp said.

The Eagles cut the deficit to three points on multiple occasions in the second half, but each time time the Chargers re-extended their lead.

“It showed something about us that we were able to dig deep when we needed to,” said sophomore point guard Nate Neveau, who finished with 9 points and 4 assists. “Other teams are going to make runs in games and you’ve just got to continue to do what you can and fight your way back.”

Four Chargers scored in double figures. Redshirt freshman point guard Dylan Lowry led Hillsdale with 17 points off the bench on 6-of-9 shooting. Junior guard Ryan Badowski added 15 points and senior forward Rhett Smith scored 10.

Hillsdale’s balanced attack vanished on Saturday against Kentucky-Wesleyan. Stedman Lowry scored 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting but no other Hillsdale player scored more than seven points. The Chargers shot 44 percent (24-of-55) from the field and just 26 percent (7-of-27) from beyond the arc. Hillsdale is 4-0 this season when shooting 50 percent or better from the field and 0-2 when falling short of that mark.

Despite their below-average offensive performance, the Chargers trailed 57-54 with 5:57 remaining in the game. But the Panthers, who had won 33 straight home games entering Saturday’s contest, scored 15 straight points over the next 3:33 to put the game away.

“They are a very talented team and a very athletic team,” Tharp said. “They got downhill on us in transition. We did a poor job of matching up in transition, and then they fed off a few of our transition mistakes that we made defensively.”

The Panthers shot 52 percent (28-of-54) from the field and 58 percent (7-of-12) from beyond the arc. Tharp said Kentucky Wesleyan’s hot 3-point shooting was a result of the Chargers focusing on keeping them out of the paint.

“It was a risk that we had to take,” Tharp said. “We rolled the die and that’s what they did.”

The Chargers were unable to pick up both wins against tough opponents, but they still see the positives.

“The final score might not have been that close (against Kentucky Wesleyan), but we were a shot away from tying it up at one point,” Neveau said. “To know that we’re right there and we can compete with those kinds of teams is good, but we also have to find a way to get over that hump.”

The Chargers will need a more balanced effort Thursday against Saginaw Valley if they want to pull out the upset. In each of Hillsdale’s four wins this season, at least four players have scored in double figures.

“Having a balanced attack is really important,” Lowry said. “Especially when we get our bench to do good things, that helps a lot as well.”

Taking better care of the basketball will also prove key. In their two losses this year, the Chargers have averaged 15.5 turnovers per game.

“The games that we’ve struggled in and that we’ve ended up losing have been our highest turnover games,” Neveau said.

It’ll take a balanced effort — but not just on offense — for the Chargers to be successful.

“In the best games that we’ve played, everyone’s contributed. Not necessarily in scoring, but rebounding and even taking care of the ball,” Neveau said. “When we’re able to get contributions from everyone — whether it be points, assists, rebounds, taking a charge, the little things — that’s when we’ve been able to have success.”

If they can accomplish those things, the Chargers are confident they can knock off the Cardinals.

“If we’re solid we can definitely make it a game,” Lowry said. “We’re definitely good enough to beat them.”