After Thursday night's heartbreaking 79-77 loss to Walsh, junior Stedman Lowry left the locker room and immediately set up a rebounding machine on one of the practice courts, not wasting any time on working on his jump shot.
The hard work paid off big-time for Lowry and the Chargers.
Led by Lowry's nine 3-point field goals, Hillsdale sent its biggest home crowd of the season home happy with a feel-good 80-62 win over Tiffin University at the Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena.
To say Lowry was on fire in the first half is a gross understatement. He went 7-for-7 from 3-point territory in the half, the first time in school history that has been done by a Charger men's basketball player in one half of play. His nine 3s were just one shy of the record set by Tim Homan back on December 8, 2007. Homan made his first four 3-point shots of the second half of that game, then missed his fifth. Eight of Homan's 10 made threes in that game came in the second half.
None of Lowry's seven threes in the first half even hit any part of the rim. He was locked in, but didn't force his shots. They came within the regular flow of the offense, though Lowry did bang home a couple beyond NBA 3-point range, for good measure.
He finished 9-for-12 on his 3-point shots, and his 31 points were second-most he's scored in a game in his career, only trailing the 32 he scored against Northwood Jan. 5.
Lowry's master's-level class on shooting was just one highlight of a spirited effort by the entire Hillsdale team. The Chargers held the Dragons – who have wins over Saginaw Valley State, Grand Valley State and Michigan Tech this season – to 33 percent shooting from the field, and 21 percent 3-point shooting in the game. The Chargers also did man's work on the boards, outrebounding Tiffin 43-35. Leading that effort inside was sophomore Nick Czarnowski, who followed up the best game of his career with the second-best game of his career.
Once again providing inside scoring and power off the bench, Czarnowski finished with 13 points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes for the Chargers. He's become stronger with the ball in the paint, and can power over and through defenses in a much more effective way than he did a year ago. His improvement is an exciting aspect to this season for the Chargers.
Hillsdale shot 47 percent from the field and piled up a season-high 10 blocked shots. The chief eraser on the Hillsdale side was senior Nick Archer, who grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked a career-high four shots to bolster the Hillsdale defense. Czarnowski and senior Rhett Smith each blocked a pair of shots in the win.
UP NEXT: Hillsdale travels to Lake Erie College to face the Storm Thursday night at 7:30.