The Hillsdale College men’s basketball team picked up a pair of home wins against the Trevecca Nazarene University Trojans and the Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers, stretching its win streak to three games and moving within a half game of first place in the G-MAC.
The team’s record improved to 13-4 overall and 8-3 in the G-MAC, behind only Malone University and Walsh College, who both hold 8-2 in-conference records.
“I think throughout the whole weekend we had a plethora of guys who stepped up and contributed so that was really awesome to see,” junior forward Patrick Cartier said. “We just played for each other, I thought it was a really solid couple of games.”
The team’s weekend started with a 67-51 win over Trevecca. The Chargers held their opponent to under 40% shooting from the field and under 24% from three with just 10 team assists.
“Our whole year we’ve had really good scouting, the coaches have really worked hard, as far as telling us tendencies with guys like what hand they like to go to or what moves they like to do, I think that’s been a huge part of our defense this year,” Cartier said. “I say this to our guys a lot, when we’re all locked in and playing together, five guys guarding the ball and one person at a time, I think we’re really hard to score on and tough to beat.”
Cartier dropped a game-high 19 points, with freshman guard Joe Reuter not far behind with 17 points off the bench, knocking down three threes. Both out-scored any single Trevecca player. Reuter has emerged as the team’s highest bench scorer and shoots a team-best 44% from three.
“It’s definitely much more of a mental game in high school, but I think one of the biggest adjustments that I’ve needed to make is constantly knowing sets, constantly knowing plays, knowing defensive schemes and knowing personnel, especially on defense,” Reuter said. “It’s really nice knowing that I’ve been able to see the progress being made, the game is becoming a lot slower now and easier to read.”
The Chargers then took on Kentucky, using a full team effort to come away with a 77-70 win. Cartier led the way again, with game highs in points and rebounds, with 20 and eight respectively.
Four other Chargers had double-figure scoring nights, led by senior forward Austen Yarian with 13 points to go along with six rebounds and a game-high five assists. Reuter and junior guards Kyle Goessler and Jack Gohlke each added 10.
“It helps when you shoot 11-of-13 on two-point field goals in the first half and I think that really allowed us to jump out and get a big lead,” Reuter said. “It was our consistency that allowed us to be level-headed and stay focused and we knew they were going to come back and make a push, we were able to weather the storm really well.”
The storm came in the form of a long, 26-13 run from the Panthers as they slowly crawled their way back into the game, cutting the Chargers’ lead to just seven.
“I thought we played really well for about 25 minutes of that game, the last six or seven minutes of the game when they were getting down hill on us, that was my fault,” Head Coach John Tharp said. “We changed our defense up a little bit, wanted to protect the three-point line, they just attacked the rim on us, and we didn’t think the two-point shots were going to beat us, because of that we struggled a little bit, but that was totally on me.”
Put on the free-throw line in the closing seconds, Goessler knocked down four straight free throws to put the Panthers away.
“Down the stretch guys like Goessler were able to knock down their free-throws, it just adds to the confidence and a level of maturity to this team,” Reuter said.
After having gone 2-3 in their previous five games at home, Cartier said the team was happy to string a couple of home wins together.
“That’s something we take a lot of pride in so I was really happy we were able to come out with wins and we had pretty good crowds for both games, which was awesome to have support,” Cartier said. “It was really cool to bring home a couple of wins in front of the home crowd for sure.”
The team will head to Ohio Dominican University for a game against the Panthers, who they beat at home earlier this year, on Thursday, followed by a home stand against the Cedarville University Yellow Jackets.
“Ohio Dominican creates problems for us because of how many ball screens they set and it’s something where you have to be really good on the ball and controlling the basketball, they’re talented that way,” Tharp said. “Cedarville, talent wise, is probably one of the most talented teams in our league with a bunch of guys individually that can make plays, they’re long, they’re athletic, and they move the ball pretty well, they’re just very good.”