The Hillsdale College Chargers will face off against two regional opponents in their early season play this weekend. Their first game is against Southern Indiana University on Friday and they’ll play Oakland City University on Saturday in the Dawn Tibbits Potter Arena.
Friday’s game is against Southern Indiana, which Hillsdale head coach John Tharp calls “the most heralded Division II basketball programs in the country.” This will be a rematch from last season’s opening game when the Chargers defeated the Eagles 67-60 in overtime.
Southern Indiana went on to win the Midwest Region and eventually make it to the NCAA Division II Final Four.
“So far in practice we’ve just been focusing more on us and doing the things we can do to get better offensively and defensively,” senior guard Dylan Lowry. “It’s going to start on the defensive end for us with them having so many guys who can score from so many sports.”
Tharp says this year’s matchup will be much different, as the Chargers have graduated eight seniors and Southern Indiana received several transfers, as well as graduating a few seniors.
“We don’t know necessarily a ton about their makeup as a team because they’re relatively new,” Tharp said. “We’re just going to focus as much as we can on what we need to do to win this game. I know they’re going to be really big, really athletic, and really physical, and so we’re going to have to keep them off the boards and guard them without fouling.”
“Their 4-man, I play the four as well, and he’s supposed to be their All-American, their best guy, so I’m kind of excited to get the opportunity to guard him and try to make a statement,” junior forward Austen Yarian said. “We’ve been working a lot in practice guarding the bigger guys in the post.”
The Hillsdale-Southern Indiana game will be the second game of the day for a busy weekend for Charger Athletics. The women’s basketball team will be playing prior at 10:30 a.m., and the men follow at 12:30.
“It’s unbelievable, but it’s kind of fun,” Tharp said of the 12:30 start time. “It’s just gonna be a full weekend of sports here when you think about everything that’s happening.”
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams, as well as the volleyball team are home this weekend, totalling eight different events.
Yarian said a win over Southern Indiana would have a big influence on their future postseason play.
“They’re in our region, so if we beat them and have a really good season, and they lose to somebody, it could help us make it to the Tournament,” Yarian said. “They were ranked in the top 25, and we weren’t ranked, so we want to come out for our first game and make a statement.”
Oakland City will be a new opponent for Hillsdale, as none of the current Chargers have ever taken on the Mighty Oaks. Oakland City is a non-affiliate Division II program. Last year the Chargers played the University of Illinois Springfield in their opening weekend, but due to coaching changes for the Prairie Stars, they decided not to come to Hillsdale.The Chargers will play Oakland City on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.
“Like any team you play, we’re not going to take anybody lightly,” Lowry said. “They’re gonna have talented guys, so our focus is going to be about us working on what we need to improve on.”