The Hillsdale College men’s basketball team used big games from juniors Patrick Cartier and Jack Gohlke to win both of its games last week, extending its win streak to five games and moving into second place in the G-MAC.
After taking home a win against the Ohio Dominican University Panthers in Ohio, 76-59, the Chargers came home and beat the Cedarville University Yellow Jackets, 85-71, to push their overall record to 15-4 with an in-conference record of 10-3.
During the week, Gohlke shot 10-of-15 from three, pushing his three-point percentage up to a conference-best 45.8%. Cartier averaged 23 points per game, continuing a stellar season in which he holds the conference lead in both points per game and shooting percentage.
With the wins, the team passed Walsh University to take second place in the conference. The Chargers remain just a half game behind Malone University in first place as well as a half game from fourth place.
“Going to Ohio Dominican has always just been a battle for us over the years and we played really well, Jack Gohlke hit a lot of big shots for us,” Head Coach John Tharp said. “Against a very talented Cedarville team on Saturday, it was a great first half of basketball that we played. I’m very pleased with what they did last week and we know we’ve got a lot of battles coming up that are incredibly important games.”
Against Ohio Dominican, the team got up big early, taking a 19-point lead into the halftime locker room. The Chargers were playing well on both ends of the floor, shooting over 64% from both the field and three while holding the Panthers to under 29% shooting in both departments.
Despite the Panthers outscoring Hillsdale in the second half, the score never got within 10 as the Chargers continued to roll.
Gohlke and Cartier each dropped 25 points as they combined to shoot 17-of-25 from the field. Cartier added 11 rebounds and five assists while Gohlke knocked down seven of his 10 three-point shots.
“I’ve got the easy job of getting to shoot and hopefully making my shots,” Gohlke said. “The team overall has done a really good job of screening really well and getting each other open these past couple of weeks and that all starts with Pat drawing two defenders every time he catches the ball.”
The team continued to play well on both sides of the ball in its game against Cedarville. The Chargers held the Yellow Jackets to 16 first-half points, forcing them to shoot 21.2% from the field, and 0-of-10 from three.
“We just focused a lot on defending their ball screens and stuff like that, because that’s such a big part of their offense, trying to get their guards one-on-one with a lot of space on the floor,” Gohlke said. “We focused on trying to cut down their spacing and we knew they were a good shooting team but we thought the most important thing was not leaving our guards out on islands while they were guarding the ball.”
While Cedarville made runs throughout the second half, the Chargers never let them cut the differential under 10 points as they rolled to their fifth straight win.
“I thought we really punched ODU and Cedarville in the mouth to start the game, which is definitely huge for us going forward,” Cartier said. “Something we can improve on is stepping on their throats in the second half. I thought we did a good job with Cedarville but we let them creep around, so keeping our foot on the gas is important.”
Cartier finished with a game high 21 points and a team high eight rebounds, with Gohlke not far behind at 17 points on nine shots. Three other Chargers chipped in double-digit scoring efforts of their own, with senior Austen Yarian, junior Cole Nau, and freshman Joe Reuter combining for 38 points on 13-of-21 shooting.
Yarian and Nau each added a game-high five assists while Reuter grabbed seven rebounds off the bench. Junior Kyle Goessler added five assists of his own to help the Chargers hit 20 team assists.
“I was really pleased with Saturday’s efforts with regard not only to the assists but to taking care of the basketball, down the stretch we were turning the ball over a bit too much,” Tharp said. “But our guys are willing to pass the basketball, we know how important that is for our program, it’s our own way of attacking the rim by making an extra pass or seeing below. We’re not the best team off the bounce but when we make that extra pass and post feed, that just makes us super dangerous on the offensive end.”
The team has only one game this week, in Findlay against the Oilers on Saturday. The Chargers lost by 17 to Findlay at home in their meeting earlier this season.
“Last game it was a totally different environment, it was a home game and obviously you want to play well at home, but it was over winter break so there weren’t a lot of people there,” Gohlke said. “It’s gonna be a crazy game at Findlay, their fans are always out there making it a fun atmosphere and also we know the conference implications of the game as well, it’s not like we wanted to lose the first one, but there’s a bigger sense of urgency for this one.”