A return to the home court yielded more of the same things the Charger men's basketball team has done to enjoy a successful season so far.
Airtight defense and balanced scoring was again a winning formula as Hillsdale defeated Kentucky Wesleyan 72-60 Thursday night at the Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena. The win was the 10th of the season for the Chargers, who improve to 10-6 overall and a conference-best 6-1 in the G-MAC.
In a grind-it-out first half, Hillsdale relied on tough, disciplined defense to limit the Panthers to just 21 points in the game's first 20 minutes. Hillsdale generated just enough offense to build a double-digit lead by imtermission, 33-21. While the Panthers improved their shot-making in the second half, the Chargers never lost control of the flow of the game, and came up with important stops on one end, and makes on the other to maintain the lead throughout.
Freshman forward Patrick Cartier came into the game ranked fourth in NCAA Division II in field goal percentage, making 68 percent of his shots this year. The Panthers did an excellent job on Cartier to open the game, forcing him to miss four of his first five shots. But in the second half, Cartier adjusted nicely and attacked the basket in different ways, opening up easy shots for himself.
A key basket down the stretch was a 3-point field goal he hit on a baseline out of bounds play that upped Hillsdale's lead from 10 to 13 points with 4:06 to go. Although the Hillsdale lead was 10 before the shot, the Panthers were playing with growing confidence on offense through the second half, and whittled what was a 15-point Charger lead down to just seven.
Many of those made KWC shots were with Hillsdale defenders playing great positional defense. The shots just went in, but ultimately, the Chargers created enough stops to never lose the lead completely.
Cartier recovered well from his rough start to finish 7-for-13 from the field for a team-high 16 points. He made six of his final eight shots from the floor, and converted a pair of 3-pointers.
Junior Austen Yarian's play has been tranding upward of late, and he did nothing to throw off that trend in this one. He made a career-high four 3-point field goals on his way to a 12-point, 4-rebound, 2-steal performance. His long-distance shots helped give the Chargers valuable offense in the first half, when points were hard to come by for both teams.
Senior guard Dylan Lowry again played well down the stretch and had 16 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists. He made a long jump shot one possession after Cartier's three that essentially sealed up the win for Hillsdale.
The Chargers were again faced with one of the top scorers in the G-MAC in the form of Kentucky Wesleyan's Adam Goetz. A quick, prolific scorer, Goetz came into the game averaging 17 points per game. But thanks to the strong defense from Connor Hill and Davis Larson, he was limited to 4-for-15 shooting and 10 points in the ballgame. It was the second straight home game the Chargers have severely limited one of the top scorers in the conference in a victory.
PHOTO: MaryKate Drews