An early 10-point deficit proved to be too much for the Hillsdale College men's basketball team to overcome Saturday afternoon in its final road contest of the regular season.
The Chargers lost at Ohio Dominican 68-55, dropping their record to 17-8 overall and 13-5 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
ODU took the lead early, scoring the game's first five points and built that lead to 10, 22-12, just beyond the halfway point of the first half. The Panthers led by 11 at halftime, but the Chargers hung tough, closing the gap in the second half.
Back-to-back layups by senior Nick Czarnowski and a jumper by Austen Yarian brought Hillsdale to within six, 47-41, with 11:46 to go in the game. However, the Panthers, led by the G-MAC's most devastating post player, would score 11 of the next 12 points to restore a big lead.
ODU center Hassan Varance recorded the first 20-20 game against the Chargers in decades with his final stat line of 21 points and 21 rebounds.
Despite such a dominant effort, the Chargers were even with the Panthers in points in the paint (36-36). But ODU held Hillsdale to 38 percent shooting from the floor (24-for-63) while the home team connected on 46 percent of its shots.
Yarian and Dylan Lowry each scored 15 points to lead the Chargers in this game. Yarian was 7-for-12 from the floor and led the team with 8 rebounds. Czarnowski had his second straight game of double digit scoring, picking up 11 with 5 rebounds.
PHOTO: MaryKate Drews