The Hillsdale College men's basketball team had an impressive finish to both halves in a home contest against Kentucky Wesleyan, and those closing flourishes were critical in a 79-68 home victory over the Panthers on Thursday night.
On the outside looking in of the G-MAC Tournament picture entering the night, the Chargers were in desperate need of a quality win to add to their resume in the final two weeks of the season, and put on an inspired performance against the always-tough Panthers. Despite being shorthanded without leading scorer
Ashton Janowski, Hillsdale played one of its best games of the season at both ends of the floor.
Trailing for most of the first 10 minutes of the game, Hillsdale found its rhythm in the last 10 minutes of the first half. A 3-pointer by
Cole McWhinnie at the 10:53 mark gave Hillsdale a 23-20 edge, and Hillsdale didn't trail again in the half, going up 33-27 on an emphatic transition dunk by
Braylon Morris with 6:08 left in the half and leading by as many as eight before taking a 41-36 lead into the break.
KWC came out firing in the second half and overtook Hillsdale, going up 60-56 on a 3-pointer with nine minutes to play, but in a game with huge stakes for the Chargers' season, Hillsdale battled back hard. The Chargers got back-to-back buckets to tie the game at 60-all, then outscored KWC 19-8 down the stretch to pull out a massive win.
Garrett Bolte fired up the Chargers and the crowd with a massive dunk on a backdoor cut to help Hillsdale pull ahead with 5:15 to play, and
Cole McWhinnie and
CJ Yarian each knocked down a 3-pointer to extend Hillsdale's lead in the closing stretch.
The key matchup for the Chargers on the night came in the paint. Hillsdale outscored KWC's vaunted frontline 50-42 on points in the paint, with junior
Caleb Glaser matching one of the conference's best offensive big men, the Panthers' Fatih Huyuk, blow for blow with 22 points for each player. Glaser's 22 points were a new career high, along with five rebounds.
The junior got plenty of offensive help from his teammates, as four Chargers finished in double figures. McWhinnine hit those two big 3-pointers and finished with 14 points and three assists for Hillsdale, while wings
Braylon Morris and
Tommy Morgan each chipped in 12 points as well. Yarian added seven points and
Connor Stonebraker six for Hillsdale, who outshot KWC 57.1% to 45.3% from the floor to secure the victory.
Hillsdale improves to 10-15 overall and 7-10 in the G-MAC with the victory, and the Chargers bank valuable points for the G-MAC's Points Rating System that decides the G-MAC Tournament field, setting up a potentially electric battle for the final spot in the tourney over the last three games. Hillsdale's victory moves them past Malone, who had held the eighth spot, in the standings, but, with a win on the road at Findlay, Cedarville, which entered the night in 10th, overtook both the Chargers and Pioneers to snag the eighth spot by the slimmest of margins.
With all three teams so close in the PRS, every game matters from now to the end of the season. Hillsdale can bank another quality win worth big points if the Chargers can upset Ohio Dominican on the road on Saturday in their next contest. Tip-off for that contest is at 3 p.m.
