Over the month-long Christmas break, the Hillsdale College men’s basketball team took to the hardwood to continue their impressive season.
After starting the stretch by beating Ferris State 87-79 and dominating University of Michigan Dearborn 84-50, the Chargers found themselves in a rut following devastating losses to Wayne State and Saginaw Valley State.
“It was a come-to-Jesus moment for us,” said head coach John Tharp. “Ever since then we’ve been pretty tough and showed a tremendous amount of passion and pride in our program.”
The Chargers recovered from the losses by utilizing a back-to-basics approach, relying on their disciplined defense and powerful presence on the boards, which has served them well in past games. They surged forward to a four-game winning streak and advanced to a 12-4 record, handily defeating Tiffin (96-78) and Ohio Dominican (86-59) and squeaking by Lake Erie (59-52) and Ashland (54-48) this past week.
“We had a rough week at the beginning of break, losing to Wayne State and Saginaw Valley,” said senior center Nick Washburn. “After that rough stretch we have started playing with a sense of urgency and started winning games. We are starting to come together more and more each day and learning what it takes to win.”
In explaining what has led to the team’s success, coach Tharp reiterated the sentiment that it has been different guys on different nights that have really helped to pull the Chargers together as a team. Tharp credited Washburn’s and junior forward Tim Dezelski’s consistency on both offense and defense as key elements of the team’s past victories.
He also emphasized the impressive performances on both sides of the ball by junior guards Brandon Pritzl, Derek Schell, and Darius Ware.
“If we keep our confidence and keep believing then I think that we’ll have a great ending to our season,” Tharp said.
Looking forward to the games to come, coach Tharp said that his team is working on becoming more efficient offensively, particularly focusing on better ball control and offensive timing. As they prepare for their match-ups against Malone and Walsh this week and focus on the conference games in the weeks to come, the Chargers are confident in their ability to churn out more wins.
“We feel like we are as good, if not better than any other team in the conference, even the nation,” said Washburn. “We still have yet to play our best basketball, but I have a feeling it is coming soon.”
