(Photo: Crystal Schupbach | Collegian)
The Hillsdale men’s basketball team (18-7, 12-6 G-MAC) split two games this week, earning a convincing 78-67 win over the Lake Erie University Storm (4-24, 3-17 G-MAC) on Saturday afternoon, but losing 65-48 against Ohio Dominican University (14-10, 9-8 G-MAC) when the shots just wouldn’t fall.
In the previous two games, the Chargers suffered losses as their star senior guards Ryan Badowski and Stedman Lowry shot poorly. In the slump, Badowski shot 21 percent and Lowry shot 17 percent.
But at home against the Storm, both scored in bunches. Lowry led the team with a season-high 31 points on 10-17 shooting including 5-9 from beyond the arc and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. He got hot but kept running the offense, coming off screens and finding space for open shots.
“Stedman ran great motion against Lake Erie,” head coach John Tharp said. “We’re reading defenses, screening, and cutting. We did work before he received the ball.”
Badowski complimented him scoring 19 points on 50 percent shooting while nabbing 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
With junior forward Gordon Behr in foul trouble early, sophomore guard Davis Larson stepped up and played 21 minutes scoring 7 points and grabbing 5 rebounds.
“We have been working Davis more and more at the four,” Tharp said. “He can put the ball on the floor and score. Winning is incredibly important for him.”
Although Behr gives the team great length at power forward, Larson’s speed and strength help him to bully inside, nabbing rebounds and finishing at the rim.
Junior point guard Nate Neveau scored 8 points and had 6 assists, but his true value was putting defensive pressure on the Storm’s leading scorer Gabe Kynard. Neveau kept his hands up and his feet moving restricting the Storm guard to 13 points on 3 of 10 shooting.
“Neveau is one of the best defensive players in D-2 basketball. He almost always guards the best perimeter players and forces them to stay in from of him,” Tharp said.
And Neveau doesn’t restrict relentless defense to game-time. Tharp said he feels bad for the other guards who have to deal with him in practice.
“We have to shut him down sometimes,” he said. “He comes to compete every day.”
Though both teams matched up in nearly most statistical categories, the Chargers stepped to the free throw line 33 times and converted 70 percent. From the field, they shot 51 percent in total.
After two disappointing losses, the game seemed to signal a sign of things to come for the Charger basketball team. But as Tharp has often said, “We’re a fine-line team.”
Monday night the team traveled down to Columbus, Ohio to battle the Panthers but struggled top to bottom and shot only 29 percent from the field to score 48 points. Both statistics mark season-lows for the team.
‘You know when a team is sharp and crisp, and we just didn’t have any of it,” Tharp said. “We were a second slow with everything. We just weren’t any good.”
The Panthers early hot shooting established an 8-0 lead after the opening tip. The Chargers weren’t able to regain the lead over the course of the game. The lead grew into a 16-point gulf that Lowry’s hot shooting tried to bridge.
But it was too little, too late as the Panthers poured in 9 of their first 16 shots from three.
“It was like sitting in the dentist’s chair,” Tharp said.
Despite taking care of the ball and having season-low 6 turnovers, Hillsdale lost the rebounding battle 45-33 and made half as many three-point field goals.
With slow pacing and lax rotations, Tharp said the timing was generally off and contributed to stagnant offense.
Lowry led the team in scoring with 11 points, including 3 buckets launched from beyond the arc. Junior forward Nick Czarnowski was second in scoring with 9 points and 3 rebounds but shot only 33 percent for the game.
“We definitely need to do a better job of finishing around the rim,” Tharp said.
By the end of the game, Tharp emptied the bench when the outcome became inevitable.
“I’m scratching my head a bit,” Tharp said. “This time of the year, we usually play our best basketball.”
After spending most of the season in second place behind Findlay, on of the top-ranked teams in D-2, the Chargers have fallen to fourth in the G-MAC standings behind Findlay, Walsh, and Malone.
But the Chargers will play more basketball beyond the regular season. With their win against the Lake Erie Storm, the Hillsdale team has clinched a berth in the 2018 G-MAC Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Hillsdale will play their final home game of the season on Saturday against Ohio Valley University at 3 p.m. The team will also celebrate Lowry and Badowski’s collegiate basketball careers in their final appearance at Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena.