Chargers stack all-conference teams, prepare for NCAA tournament

Chargers stack all-conference teams, prepare for NCAA tournament

Fifth-year senior Peter Kalthoff made the All-GMAC first team after a career-best season.
Courtesy | James Gensterblum

The Hillsdale men’s basketball team is dancing once again, making the NCAA DII Tournament for the program-record third year in a row as it put a record-tying four players on the G-MAC all-conference first and second teams.

Though the team lost to Ashland for the third time this year, ending its conference-tournament run, it received an at-large bid to play in the NCAA Tournament.

After making the NCAA Sweet Sixteen for the first time in program history two seasons ago, the team made another historic run a year later, punching its first-ever ticket to Evansville, IN for the NCAA Elite Eight. Now, the Chargers are set to play in the national tournament for the third straight year, the only such stretch in the program’s 122-year history.

“I’m very pleased, what an awesome thing, not to get an automatic bid, but to hear your name called up there,” head coach John Tharp said. 

After spending much of the season as the region’s two-seed, the NCAA put the Chargers into the fourth seed of the eight-team Midwest region. 

“I thought, based on our numbers throughout the entire year, we were going to be higher,” Tharp said. “But I think there’s that whole side of Ashland beating us three times, and what do you do with Ashland? How can they be ranked lower than us? Even though our numbers, strictly from a formula standpoint, were better.”

Prior to the team’s loss to Ashland in the semi-finals of the G-MAC tournament on Friday, the conference released its 2022-23 awards. Fifth-years, center Peter Kalthoff and guard Jack Gohlke, were selected to the All-GMAC first team, while sophomore forward Joe Reuter and senior guard Kyle Goessler made the second team.

“It was much deserved for our team overall,” Gohlke said. “I think we definitely deserved the recognition. We had some guys that had great individual years, but also that kind of just plays off of how we play pretty well together and that’s why we were able to get all of us recognized.”

The honors mark the first conference-team appearance for all four players, only one of whom, Goessler, was a full-season starter last year. Additionally, this year’s Charger squad becomes the fifth in G-MAC history to put four players on the first or second teams. Two of the other four teams to have done it was also Charger teams, from two and three seasons ago.

“We’ve had some great players and great people be a part of this basketball program,” Tharp said. “The thing that I’m most proud of is that there’s some individual talent, but they’ve always played as a team. These guys have put aside some of their own individual accolades and contributed to our program, so I’m proud of that.”

All four Chargers saw both expanded roles and increased production on this year’s team, all averaging career-highs in points and rebounds per game. Kalthoff headlines the team’s vast improvements, having scored more points this year, 390, than his first four years combined times eight. 

“I was a little surprised I got first team,” Kalthoff said. “I was super happy that a lot of us made some kind of honors. I think it’s really telling of something that we knew all year long, which is that we have a really balanced starting five, that’s one of our strengths.”

Goessler and Kalthoff made the All-Defensive team as well, leading a team that sits at 13th in the nation in scoring defense. Goessler leads the team in minutes and is second in steals, often guarding the opposing team’s best guard. Kalthoff led the team in both blocks and rebounds.

Multiple members of the team noted that the team’s senior point guard, Cole Nau, who led the team in steals, was left off of the All-Defensive team after what they viewed as a stellar season on that side of the ball. 

“I definitely thought that Cole could have been a part of that All-Defensive team,” Gohlke said. “I think he brings a lot when it comes to guarding the other team’s best wing and being an impact defender, so it would have been cool to see him get on that team as well.”

Following the all-conference selections, the team faced off against the Ashland Eagles for the third time this season, in the G-MAC Tournament semi-finals.

A late push from Ashland and a cold streak from the Chargers gave the Eagles a 76-69 win.

The squads were knotted up at 60 entering the game’s final minutes, but a Hillsdale scoring drought that lasted from 6:43 to 1:23 remaining, knocked the Chargers out of the tournament.

“Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see them again sometime soon,” Kalthoff said. “We’ve definitely improved upon the last two times playing them and I think we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times down the stretch, kind of hurt ourselves a little bit.”

The Chargers are set for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff on Saturday in the round of 64, playing against the winners of the GLIAC tournament, Northern Michigan. The team beat Northern Michigan by 21 when they faced off on Nov. 20 during non-conference play.

“These guys are playing really well, winning the GLIAC Championship and we haven’t been playing as well as maybe earlier in the year,” Tharp said. “That’s so far back in the past, it’s similar to what Ferris State did to us last year, and then we saw them in the NCAA Tournament and things got turned quickly.”

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