The Charger men's basketball team absorbed another close, frustrating loss on the road to a contender in the GLIAC North Division Monday night.
A back-and-forth end to the game against Saginaw Valley State swung the Cardinals' way in a 59-56 Charger loss at O'Neill Arena. The loss drops Hillsdale to 10-9 overall and 8-7 in the GLIAC, while SVSU, a much-improved team this season, is 17-4 overall and 13-2 in conference play.
This game featured seven ties and 11 lead changes, many of those lead changes occurring in the final two minutes of the second half. Two late 3-point attempts by the Chargers did not find the twine, while the Cardinals made just enough free throws to sneak away with the win.
Hillsdale started the game strong in the first half, leading 21-11 at one point. That lead was cut to one thanks to a half-ending 18-9 run by SVSU. The Cardinals led by as many as six in the second half, when the game of runs started.
Hillsdale's best run of the second half was engineered singlehandedly by junior forward Kyle Cooper. Plagued by foul trouble all night, and limited to just 21 minutes on the floor, Cooper returned to the game and simply took over. In a 78-second sequence, he threw down a dunk, hit a 3-pointer, blocked a shot, grabbed a steal and swished two free throws to swing the score from 53-47 SVSU to 54-53 Chargers, with 3:02 to go.
The game went back and forth from there until the final seconds, when Hillsdale was unable to make the one shot it really needed to play from ahead rather than behind.
The Cardinals held a 10-2 advantage on the offensive boards, a big statistical advantage they enjoyed in the win. That resulted in an 11-0 scoring edge in second-chance points for Saginaw Valley.
Cooper finished the game with 22 points in 21 minutes on 8-for-11 shooting from the field. Stedman Lowry added 7 points while junior guard Zach Miller handed out 8 assists.