The Hillsdale men’s basketball team grabbed sole control of the G-MAC with crucial wins over conference foes and standout performances from its seniors.

The Chargers celebrated their six graduating seniors as they took down the Walsh Cavaliers and the Lake Erie Storm in their final two home games of the regular season. Now, with three games left before the start of the postseason, Hillsdale holds a one-game lead over Walsh and Ashland, who the team faces on Saturday.

“This group throughout the year has stepped up, they’ve responded,” head Coach John Tharp said. “They have a workmen-like mentality; they don’t get too high, they don’t get too low, and I’m proud of that.”

Fifth-year senior Peter Kalthoff recorded the fifth and sixth double-doubles of his season over the weekend, earning his third G-MAC Player of the Week Award of the year.

“The most important thing is we got the two wins,” Kalthoff said. “I don’t always know what their criteria is, but I don’t really care about it, or about the award at this point, because it’s not doing much for me or for anybody else to think about it or get wrapped up in it, but it is a sign of us winning and doing things right.”

The weekend’s play was defined by balanced scoring and elite defense. Every Charger starter scored at least nine points in back-to-back games for the first time this season, with three different players scoring at least 17 points across the two games.

“It’s hard to guard, when you have guys who have played together for four years now, we know where each other are on the court, how to play off each other and how to screen off each other,” senior guard Cole Nau said. “It’s definitely hard to guard because you can’t just focus on one person.”

Going into the team’s Thursday matchup, the Chargers were tied with Walsh for the top spot in the G-MAC, with huge conference tournament implications on the line. 

Hillsdale got off to a fast start, shooting 50% from three through the first 20 minutes, and took a 15-point lead into halftime. The Chargers flexed the nation’s No. 8 scoring defense throughout the game, holding Walsh one point shy of its season-low in scoring.

“I thought we were elite defensively on Thursday, I’ve just seen the film and I thought we were just so locked in, and really did not give anything up easy” Tharp said. “I thought just as a whole, as a team, we were elite defensively, which at this time of year is huge.”

Kalthoff put up game-highs in points and rebounds, with 17 and 11 respectively, as the Chargers knocked Walsh down to second place in the G-MAC, while also securing the tiebreaker over their conference foe.

“We’ve been really good in some big games, and we’ve also been poor in a couple big games this year,” Nau said. “I just look at the guys that we have that have played a lot of minutes, we’ve got guys that have all played in the Elite Eight, so having that experience is huge just for having a level of comfort, togetherness, and positivity.”

Prior to tipoff of Saturday’s game, the team honored its six graduating seniors, Noah Applegate, Kyle Goessler, Jack Gohlke, Jacob Ngobi, Kalthoff, and Nau. More than 1,000 fans filled Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena to watch the six play in their final home regular season game.

“Those guys are incredible kids, I think they’ve represented Hillsdale College and Hillsdale College basketball with such great passion, and they’ve done it right in the classroom,” Tharp said. “From a basketball program standpoint, they’ve been to the Elite Eight, Sweet Sixteen, conference championships, those guys deserve a lot of credit and praise, and the year they’re having right now, those guys have just been incredible.”

Hillsdale avenged the first loss of its season in its first matchup with the storm by shooting 60% from three and pulling away in the second half for a 79-64 win. Every starter shot at or above 50% from the field and scored at least 11 points.

Tharp systematically subbed each senior either in or out during the game’s final minute, ensuring each received a standing ovation.

“I got a text message from Patrick Cartier, he texted the guys in our class just telling us to take a moment and reflect,” Kalthoff said. “I did for a little bit at the end of the game and was actually surprised with some of the emotions that were hitting me.”

The Chargers will now head on a three-game road trip to finish their regular season, starting with Malone and Ashland, on Thursday and Saturday respectively.

“Part of it is, particularly from the Ashland game, we didn’t do some things very well,” Tharp said. “So there’s just some things we need to clean up from a defensive perspective. We’ve got to make some adjustments with our ball-screen defense probably.”