For the first time in more than a decade, the No.7 Hillsdale men’s basketball team finished non-conference play a perfect 7-0.
Undefeated through seven games for the first time since 2010-11, the team moved up to No.7 in the DII Sports Information Directors of America national rankings.
A 93-62 dismantling of the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals at home put an exclamation point on the team’s out-of-conference schedule as the Chargers prepare for their first G-MAC opponents of the season.
“I thought we shared the basketball pretty well that game, and I thought Peter Kalthoff had just a great start in that first half that got us going” head coach John Tharp said. “Obviously Jack Gohlke banging a bunch of shots sure helps us.”
Fifth-year guard Jack Gohlke led the way in scoring for the Chargers for the second straight game, knocking down seven threes on his way to a game-high 25 points. This game came less than a week after the team’s win over Northern Michigan, where Gohlke scored 26 points on eight threes, both career highs.
“I’ve always tried to just be level-headed as a player,” Gohlke said. “Basketball is obviously a game of runs, but it’s also a game of streaks in a bigger sample size of multiple games, so I just try to keep a level head to go out there and shoot it with confidence no matter what the result is.”
The Chargers took down Northern, who was projected to finish second in the GLIAC in the conference’s preseason poll — by 21 — while holding the team to a season-low 53 points.
Hillsdale was scorching from outside, shooting north of 50% from three while keeping Northern to just 14%.
Defense helped define the Chargers’ win over Saginaw as well, holding the Cardinals below 36% from the field and 28% from three. Behind Gohlke in scoring were three other Chargers with at least 16 points, led by sophomore guard Joe Reuter and senior guard Kyle Goessler at 17 each. Just behind them was senior forward Peter Kalthoff with 16 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
“It puts a lot of pressure on the other team’s defense to have to guard every single one of us,” Reuter said. “I think that our offense allows us to get everyone open looks, allows everyone to do their part. That’s why we’re so balanced, because the system that we’re involved in is based on everyone doing their parts and communicating with each other.”
The team will begin conference play on Thursday, against the Cedarville Yellow Jackets. Tipoff is at 7:45 p.m.
The Chargers ended up playing Cedarville four times last season, twice during the regular season, once in the conference tournament, and once in the NCAA Tournament.
“They’re incredibly skilled, they have a superstar in Palmer, I think he’s leading the league in scoring, and they have a bunch of other guys that are really good players,” Tharp said. “I think they’re a little different from what they’ve been, but I think they’re really quite impressive.”