The Hillsdale College men’s basketball team won the final two games of its regular season, earning second place in the G-MAC and a bye into the semifinal round of the conference tournament on Friday.
Though they still have more basketball to play, the Chargers have clinched their fifth-straight season with at least 19 wins, the longest such streak in program history.
In the team’s final week of the regular season, junior forward Patrick Cartier earned his third G-MAC Player of the Week award of the season. He averaged more than 21 points per game on nearly 74% shooting from the field across the two games. On the season, Cartier now averages 22 points per game on 65% shooting, ranking 12th and eighth in the nation respectively.
“Awesome to receive this award,” Cartier said. “I really think we are playing our best basketball at the right time of the year. We have been playing great on both ends of the floor and really looking forward to the rest of the season.”
The Chargers finished their regular season with a 90-63 trouncing of the Tiffin University Dragons and a 75-65 win in Ashland to secure their second 20-win season in a row. The team won its final five games in a row, ending the regular season with a 20-6 overall record, along with a 15-5 record in conference play.
“It was a big week for us, Tiffin’s very dangerous and Ashland’s very good, we lost to them earlier this season,” junior guard Kyle Goessler said. “Overall I feel like we’re playing really good basketball right now, I’m excited to roll into the conference tournament.”
The team’s week started on Thursday against Tiffin in its last home game of the season. After a back-and-forth opening to the game, an 18-3 tear from the Chargers gave them a 17-point lead entering halftime. Hillsdale continued its stellar play in the second half, as their lead never fell below 14 points, and rose to more than 20 for the final 13 minutes.
“I’m super happy with the way we had just a combined team effort, I think that’s the type of basketball we need to be playing,” Cartier said. “Especially when you play teams a third time, teams are going to know you well and know your tendencies, so you’ve got to be able to get contributions from a variety of different spots.”
The game was just short of the team’s season-best scoring output, second only to its first game against Tiffin. The Chargers dished out 29 team assists, the fourth-most in any game in the conference this season. They committed just nine turnovers as a team, less than the 11 committed by Tiffin’s starting lineup alone.
“When our assist totals are high, you know that we’re playing good basketball,” Head Coach John Tharp said. “I think Tavon and Austen in particular these last three weeks have been really outstanding, and I think Austen’s been fantastic. I thought Tavon on Thursday against Tiffin had one of the best games he’s ever played wearing the uniform.”
In their final home game, fifth-year seniors Tavon Brown and Austen Yarian each had excellent games. Yarian flirted with a triple double, posting eight points, nine rebounds, and six assists. Brown came off the bench to put up a season-high 14 points to go along with nine rebounds and four assists.
The Chargers’ game in Ashland on Saturday had a lot riding on it, with the winner taking second place in the G-MAC and earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
“It really does feel like we’re getting hot at the right time, I think Saturday was one of the best whole games we’ve played all year in terms of both ends of the floor and a total team effort,” Cartier said. “We knew Saturday was obviously a huge game and it had a playoff-type feel to it with the bye at stake.”
Though Hillsdale led by double digits in the second half, the Eagles wouldn’t go without a fight, cutting the deficit to three points four times in the final eight minutes. A big bucket each from Cartier and Goessler as well as perfect trips to the free-throw line from Goessler and freshman guard Joe Reuter helped the Chargers ice the game with a late 8-1 run.
“It was just so much fun, the atmosphere, and playing the bad guy going on the road with a big crowd like that,” Cartier said. “Especially when they were making their run, we responded in the right way, that’s what basketball’s all about, just being able to come together and face adversity the right way.”
The G-MAC men’s basketball tournament started on Tuesday, as the teams that finished in the top six spots of the conference during the regular season face off with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament awarded to the winner.
The top two seeds, Hillsdale and the Walsh University Cavaliers, were each given a bye to the semifinal round, where the Chargers will take on the sixth-seeded Cedarville University Yellow Jackets, who knocked off third-seeded Ashland, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. If the Chargers win that game, they would play in the championship at 2 p.m. the next day.
“The reality right now for the G-MAC is we have five of the top eight teams in the region, one of the most powerful Division II basketball regions in the nation, if not the most powerful, and five of those teams are in our league,” Tharp said. “When you have an opportunity to be playing at this time of year, you’re going to see really good teams, in particular this year in the G-MAC, you’re going to see really really good teams.”
