No men's basketball team in the GLIAC North Division enters the postseason as hot as the Hillsdale College Chargers.
The team steamrolls into next week's GLIAC Tournament off a 72-62 win at 16th-ranked Saginaw Valley State University Thursday night. The Chargers have won five straight games and conclude the regular season at 17-9 overall and 13-9 in conference play.
Hillsdale earned the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament and will play at 4th-seeded Lake Superior State at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 1 in the quarterfinals.
After losing six out of seven between Jan. 21 and Feb. 6, Hillsdale found its resolve and has improved its play on both ends of the floor during its regular season-ending five-game winning streak. That play was evident in multiple ways in the win over the Cardinals, the GLIAC North Division champions.
Led by point guard Zach Miller's big offensive explosion to open the game, Hillsdale raced out to a 22-6 lead in the game's first seven minutes. Miller, who has more than 400 career assists, took charge of the scoring early, tossing in 10 of the team's first 22 points in that first half run.
After a Jason Pretzer layup, Hillsdale's lead was 15 after the first possession of the second half. But a team as good as SVSU wouldn't go down on its Senior Night without a fight, and the Cardinals made the Chargers sweat. Saginaw Valley State went on a 15-2 run to pull within 43-41 with 14:26 to go in the game.
But a strength of Hillsdale's during its streak has been its ability to counter-punch. After taking a heavy shot from the Cardinals, the Chargers never lost the lead, and after the score was 47-45, Hillsdale went on a 14-3 run that restored its double-digit lead.
Senior forward Kyle Cooper got loose in the second half and was dominant on both ends, finishing with 21 points, 9 rebounds and a career-high 5 blocked shots. Twelve of Cooper's points and 4 of his blocked shots came in the second half.
Miller's 19 points were the second-most he's scored in a game in his career, and sophomore Stedman Lowry was smooth and steady, with 10 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the floor. Freshman Nate Neveau came off the bench to produce 6 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds.
The Chargers held the Cardinals to 3-for-21 shooting from 3-point land, while Hillsdale made 15 of its 17 free throws in the victory.
PHOTO CREDIT: Anders Kiledal