The score was 76-74. The Hillsdale College Chargers had to hold on to a two-point lead for four more minutes to do something they hadn’t done in 17 years. The last time they beat the Oilers at the University of Findlay’s Croy Gymnasium was Jan. 24, 2002.
Hillsdale didn’t just hold on to their lead, however. The Chargers outscored the Oilers 17-8 in the remaining four minutes en route to a historic, 93-82 victory. The win propelled Hillsdale into a tie for first place with Findlay in the G-MAC standings.
“We really fought that entire game. They made multiple runs at us,” head coach John Tharp said. “At that four-minute timeout we challenged [our guys]: ‘We fought for 36 minutes, there is no way we’re going to take a step backwards and let Findlay take this game. We’ve got to attack.’”
With four and a half minutes to go, Hillsdale missed a layup. Findlay rebounded the ball and pushed it up the court for two points. That cut Hillsdale’s lead to two.
On the ensuing possession, the Chargers missed three more shots. The clock was winding down and they knew every opportunity mattered.
Sophomore guard Davis Larson snagged an offensive rebound and drew a foul as he put the ball back up. He earned two points at the free throw line, and started what would soon be a Chargers scoring frenzy.
“We could definitely feel how intense it was,” Larson said. “Their fans get into it so much. There were old people standing on the baseline screaming at us and cussing at us. You could tell just by the environment how intense it was and how badly we needed a shot.”
Junior guard Dylan Lowry made two jump shots in a row and with just under two and a half minutes to go, swelling the Chargers’ lead to six. Senior guard Harrison Niego added two points more with a smooth jump shot, and Lowry sank two free throws to put the Chargers up, 86-76.
With a minute left in the game, Hillsdale didn’t let up. The Chargers went to the free throw line four more times, earning seven more points. They shot 95 percent from line in the victory.
“It was Coach Tharp’s first win there,” junior guard Connor Hill said. “It was pretty special just because all week Coach Tharp was saying this was the team that could do it and he believed in us and that played a pretty big role in us coming out on top.”
Tharp was right. This year’s Chargers had the right players step up in big ways to earn a victory over the 12th-ranked team in the nation.
“It was one of the best team wins we’ve ever had,” Tharp said. “It started the week leading up to it. Our scout team guys gave us a tremendous look to get our guys ready. We had great enthusiasm on the bench.”
Larson scored a career-high 24 points while maintaining that same effort under the boards with seven rebound. The performance earned him the G-MAC Player of the Week award.
Niego added another 22 points for the third time this season. Senior guard Nate Neveau’s recent elbow injury didn’t seem to stop him from commanding the floor as he led the Chargers with four assists. Sophomore forward Austen Yarian came off the bench to add 16 points and seven rebounds.
Hill and Lowry scored 10 and 15 points, respectively. Nine of Lowry’s 15 points came in the last three minutes of the game.
Tharp said he saw a lot of maturity in the way Lowry played. A year ago, if he didn’t start the game well, he wouldn’t have come back to make the big plays he did in Saturday’s game.
“He didn’t start the game very well, but then he kinda got in a rhythm later in the game,” Tharp said. “In the last four minutes, he made some plays on the bounce; made some floaters. He did an incredible job taking care of the ball; got some fouls and made the free throws.”
The Chargers struggled to find a rhythm on offense to begin the game. It took nearly four minutes before Yarian gave Hillsdale its first two points. Larson said once Yarian made the first couple of baskets from the outside, and senior center Nick Czarnowski attacked the rim, it caused Findlay’s defense to shift, opening up scoring opportunities for the Chargers. By halftime, Hillsdale was up by nine.
“Coming in off the bench I kinda knew I had to give a lot of energy going in, especially when games aren’t going well really,” Yarian said. “It helped the team because we have a lot of guys that can play and perform Being up by nine at half time, we thought, ‘We can actually do this. Let’s just go play our game.’”
Hill said a’ fast-paced, high-scoring offense wasn’t originally Hillsdale’s game plan, but the offense adapted well.
“Our game plan didn’t really work, because we’re a team that likes to keep the score low, and they scored a lot,” Hill said. “It was just one of those games where we couldn’t miss a shot. We didn’t plan on scoring that much. Sometimes the exact opposite of what you had planned is what you’ve gotta do.”
Adjusting to such an intense offense caused the Chargers to struggle a little on defense, but Larson said he’s hopeful for what they can do once they put everything together.
“I think that just demonstrates that we can beat anybody,” Larson said. “The awesome thing is, we haven’t been at our full potential. If we put a full 40 minutes together of full offense and full defense, we can be pretty scary.”
This victory over Findlay is far from the end of Hillsdale’s season. The Chargers have 10 conference games remaining, including a weekend on the road starting with Kentucky Wesleyan College (7-8, 5-4 G-MAC) tonight at 8:45 p.m. The team will then travel to Tennessee to take on Trevecca Nazarene University (1-13, 1-8 G-MAC) on Saturday at 5:15 p.m.
Tharp said his team needs to stay focused on the games ahead and never be satisfied.
“It’s the idea that good teams are always searching for more,” he said. “They want more of that feeling they had on Saturday. They need to be confident, not cocky. We scored a ton of points, but we were not great defensively. We made a point that we can improve on that.”
