With 59 seconds remaining, another gut-wrenching defeat was staring the Hillsdale College men’s basketball team in the face.
But the Chargers never gave up and were rewarded with an exciting and improbable 59-58 victory on Saturday afternoon.
After restoring an 11-point lead with 15:09 remaining in the second half, Hillsdale managed to score just seven points over the next 14:29, allowing the Northern Michigan Wildcats to take a six-point lead.
In those last 59 seconds, the Chargers needed to score seven points — a task which had just taken more than 14 minutes — to avoid a fifth straight defeat going into their toughest stretch of games so far this season.
It would have been easy to wave the white flag, but that’s not the Hillsdale way.
Down by six with under a minute left, the Chargers kept fighting.
Even after a potential game-tying free throw rimmed out with 11 seconds left and a possible go-ahead put back layup didn’t fall, the Chargers kept fighting.
With five seconds remaining and Northern Michigan preparing to inbound from under their own basket, one thing was running through Chargers players’ heads.
“We were not going to let ourselves lose this game,” forward Kyle Cooper said.
Well-executed full-court press defense forced the Northern Michigan inbounder Chavis Mattison to attempt a long pass, but junior Rhett Smith intercepted the ball and found senior Ian Sheldon above the three-point line.
Rather than take the last-second shot, Sheldon saw senior Darius Ware waiting near the basket for the ball.
Sheldon bulleted the pass to Ware, and the 6’3” guard exploded to the rim for the game-winning buzzer-beating dunk.
Students and alumni rushed the court, celebrating one of the most exciting finishes ever at Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena.
“That’s probably the top all-time ending that I’ve ever been a part of,” Ware said. “That was the first buzzer beater that I’ve ever done and the fact that it was a dunk made it even that much better.”
After 14 minutes where nearly everything went wrong, for 59 seconds nearly everything went right.
“It was a little lucky but we deserved a little luck,” assistant coach Brian McCauley said.
The Chargers started the game well on the offensive end of the floor, shooting 56 percent in the first half to jump out to a 36-25 lead at intermission.
“We played really well in the first half with a lot of energy,” McCauley said.
The second half played out much differently.
“Every shot felt good today but sometimes they just don’t fall,” said Cooper, who made his first three shots but finished 6-15 from the field. “Luckily we have four other guys on the court who can hit shots.”
Center Jason Pretzer played another magnificent game offensively, leading the Chargers with 18 points on 8-12 shooting.
While many were struggling to find their shooting touch, the Chargers kept themselves in the game with their defense.
The Chargers held the Wildcats to 43 percent shooting and 26 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
“The important part is that we held them to 58 points,” Cooper said. “We gave ourselves a chance even when the offense wasn’t working.”
Saturday’s victory was especially important for the Chargers because it provides the team with some much-needed momentum going into a tough three-game weekend starting tonight.
“Sometimes all it takes is just one play to go your way and the wind gets under your wings,” Cooper said. “Hopefully now we can take this and get on a bit of a streak. We’ve got a big weekend next weekend so hopefully we carry this over.”
Tonight the Chargers face Ferris State in Big Rapids before returning home to play Grand Valley at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Following that matchup with the Lakers, the Chargers will play a rare Monday game at Saginaw Valley.
Ferris State and Saginaw Valley are currently tied atop the GLIAC North Division with identical 11-1 conference records, but the Chargers won’t let sterling records intimidate them.
“Anybody can beat anybody in this league,” Cooper said. “If we come with the mindset that we’re going to compete and we’re going to win a basketball game then we can win.”
Surviving this weekend with a winning record won’t be easy for the Chargers, but then again, coming back from a six point deficit in under a minute isn’t easy either.
