The men’s basketball team split its last two road games of the season last week, first beating the Ohio Dominican Panthers 73-49, but then losing to the Findlay Oilers 73-69 on Saturday.
The Chargers took a three-game winning streak into Thursday’s matchup with the Panthers, and continued their dominant streak, outscoring Ohio Dominican 39-22 in the first half, and 34-27 in the second half. The victory marked the third game this season in which Hillsdale has allowed less than 50 points. As a team, Hillsdale also finished with 11 total steals and 4 blocks, forcing 15 of the Panther turnovers.
Junior forward Joe Reuter led the Chargers once again in scoring, putting up 17 points and succeeding in eight of his 12 shot attempts. Reuter also added five rebounds, four assists, five steals, and two blocks in his 35 minutes of play.
Sophomore guard Ashton Janowski also contributed to the Chargers offensive effort with 15 points, while senior center Eric Radisevic had 10 points and 1 rebound in 8 minutes off of the bench, making all five of his shot attempts.
Hillsdale took its four-game win streak to Findlay, Ohio on Saturday to face the Oilers, but a second-half collapse allowed Findlay to win by 4 points. The Chargers led by 13 points with 11 minutes left in the second half, but the Oilers rallied to win 73-69.
“We are looking to change how we defend the ball 1 vs 1,” Sophomore center C.J. Yarian said. “We struggled in the last 11 minutes of the second half to guard the ball.”
Reuter became the 41st player in Hillsdale basketball history to surpass 1,000 career points, putting up 7 points and 6 rebounds. Reuter currently has 1,003 career points, including 397 this season. Reuter will have an opportunity to become No. 40 on the Chargers all time scoring list this Thursday, as he will only need 12 points to surpass Ray Papach, who played for Hillsdale from 1975-1977.
Senior guard Charles Woodhams led Hillsdale in scoring against the Oilers, putting up 17 points, making 6 of his 11 shots with 3 rebounds and 1 assist. Woodhams is now averaging 12.8 points per game. Off of the bench, freshman guard Mikey McCollum continued his breakout season with 12 points, making 4 of his 7 shots, and marking the 9th game this year that the freshman has scored 10 or more points.
“We’ve got some work to do to get back to some basic things that we need to re-emphasize again,” Head Coach Keven Bradley said. “They’re just too good offensively, and we’ve got too many good players for us not to be sharp defensively and do some of the things that we need to do fundamentally.”
Hillsdale now sits at 17-9 on the year, with a 12-7 G-MAC record. The Chargers will have a chance to avenge their loss to the Oilers this Thursday as they take on Findlay at home at 7:30 p.m. Hillsdale is currently in 5th place in the G-MAC basketball standings, and still has a chance to host a G-MAC tournament quarterfinal game if they can move ahead of the Ashland University Eagles, who are currently in 4th place.
“This is where it all comes together,” Reuter said. “I think we’re just looking to be complete as a unit both offensively and defensively. We just need to do what we’ve been doing all season, just continuing to be better and pushing ourselves to be better every day.”