The No. 24 men’s basketball team fell to rivals No. 5 Findlay University Oilers in a hard-fought 76-71 game at home on Jan. 25.

Findlay challenged the Chargers early, running a tight full-court press and making it difficult to move the ball effectively and find good shot opportunities.

Junior Ashton Janowski, who scored 12 for the Chargers, mentioned the team did their best to prepare for the Findlay press and five-man substitution strategy, and while they felt sped up at times, they did their best keeping turnovers to a minimum. 

“I think there are a lot of both positives and negatives that we can learn from this game so when we play them again in February we can be ready to correct our mistakes from Saturday,” Janowski said. “I don’t think we’ll shoot that poorly again.”

Redshirt freshman Logan Beaston put up 11 points for the Chargers, including nine from three-point range. 

“We got a lot of good looks we just didn’t convert. Most nights we hit those shots, Saturday we didn’t,” Beaston said. “Credit to Findlay for playing well and making shots, but now we have to bounce back and make plays this week, and get back in the win column.”

The Chargers were unable to find their rhythm, trailing 34-27 at the end of the first half, and struggled to find success from the three, shooting 41.3% from the field and 5-23 from deep. 

Senior Joe Reuter led the team in scoring with 14 points. He also grabbed five rebounds and had two assists. 

“We can only control how we play and respond to the environment we are playing in, and we have to do a better job of focusing on ourselves and playing within our capabilities,” Reuter said. “As far as going forward, we still have all our goals and what we set out to achieve at the beginning of the year in front of us.” 

The Chargers will play the Cedarville University Yellow Jackets in Cedarville, Ohio Jan. 30 and the Kentucky Wesleyan University Panthers at home Feb. 1.