Box Score

Walsh University has never been a pleasant place for the Hillsdale College men's basketball team to visit.

Until Friday night.

The Chargers put together a well-balanced and effective offensive attack in earning its second-ever GLIAC road win over the host Cavaliers 84-74 in North Canton, Ohio. This was a crucial win for Hillsdale, which was coming off back-to-back losses to end the 2014 portion of its schedule.

The Chargers are now 6-3 overall and 4-1 in the GLIAC, and will face Malone University in Canton at 3 p.m. Sunday.

After trailing by one point at halftime, Hillsdale got scoring from all over the lineup, finishing with a 53-42 edge in the second half. Players like junior point guard Zach Miller (13 points) and sophomore center Nick Archer (13 points) set new season-highs in scoring, and came through in key situations for the Chargers, but it was the second-half play of Kyle Cooper that made a big difference.

Cooper, the GLIAC's second-leading scorer at nearly 24 points per game, was held to 3 points and just three field goal attempts in the entire first half by Walsh. Cooper turned it on in the second half, scoring 17 of his team-high 20 points, scoring those points on just seven shot attempts. He went 11-for-13 from the free throw line, a big part of his second-half surge.

Cooper has 20 or more points in seven of the team's nine games, and has hit double digits in rebounding six times. He leads the GLIAC by a wide margin in average rebounds per game.

One area Hillsdale improved in the second half was inside scoring. In the game's first 20 minutes, Walsh held a 20-8 edge on points in the paint. In the second half, it was the Chargers who outscored the Cavaliers 20-16. Couple that with the team's 27 made free throws and 42 percent shooting from 3-point land, it added up to a solid road win.

Redshirt-freshman Stedman Lowry helped get the Chargers off to a strong start, scoring 9 points in a 14-4 run to open the ballgame. He finished with 16 points, needing just nine shots in the process. Forward Rhett Smith also made a nice contribution with 7 points off the bench.