Walsh's Darryl Straughter hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer to carry the Cavs to a stunning 62-61 win over the Hillsdale College men's basketball team Thursday night in North Canton, Ohio.
This gut-punch of a loss drops the Chargers to 17-5 overall and 11-4 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. Hillsdale does remain ahead of Walsh in the conference standings, as the Cavs are now 10-4 in conference play.
Hillsdale led for most of this game, and by as many as 14 in the first half. The Cavs went on a 7-2 run to end the first half, cutting their deficit to nine. Hillsdale missed its first eight shots of the second half, and suddenly saw itself behind, 41-39, after an 11-0 Walsh run.
The game stayed tight from there, with neither team leading by more than five the rest of the way. Hillsdale led 55-50 with 6:11 to go, but the Cavs quickly tied the game two minutes later.
Junior center Nick Czarnowski did his part to help the Chargers down the stretch, scoring six straight points down the stretch to get the Chargers a 61-59 lead with 1:55 to go. But Hillsdale got just one more shot at the basket, as each team ran long offensive possessions in the last two minutes. Czarnowski finished with a team-high 12 points and 9 rebounds.
Walsh outrebounded Hillsdale 42-32 in the game and grabbed 10 offensive rebounds compared to 4 for the Chargers.
Freshman Austen Yarian scored 11 points off the bench and grabbed 8 boards in another strong effort. Senior Stedman Lowry scored 11 points and senior Ryan Badowski had 10.