The Charger men's basketball escaped with a 67-60 victory in overtime against the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles in Friday night's 2018-19 season opener in Springfield, Illinois.
Southern Indiana hit a 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer to tie the game at 52. Up to that point, it had been a low-scoring, grind-it-out affair with points not coming easy for either team.
That changed in the extra session, when Hillsdale's offense came alive to score 15 points in five minutes, a far higher rate than it had scored in the two regulation halves. A shot like the one the Screaming Eagles hit could easily have deflated a Hillsdale team playing in a foreign environment for the first time.
Junior guard Dylan Lowry made a number of big plays late in the second half and overtime, leading the team with 15 points. Senior center Nick Czarnowski was 5-for-9 from the field and had 13 points, while senior guard Nate Neveau added 11. Senior forward Gordon Behr filled in all the columns with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 steals and 4 blocked shots.
The Chargers held Southern Indiana to 31 percent shooting from the field and forced 17 turnovers in the win.
PHOTO: MaryKate Drews