It's the classic formula for a tournament upset -- an underdog team gets hot from 3-point range and rides that shooting performance past a higher seeded foe.
Unfortunately for the Hillsdale College men's basketball team, that's exactly what they ran into in their GMAC Tournament Quarterfinal on Tuesday night.
Eighth-seeded Kentucky Wesleyan got hot early from beyond the arc, knocking in six first half 3-pointers to take a 30-29 lead into the break, and never let up, finishing 11 of 23 from 3-point range -- 47.8 percent on the night.
Two of those 3-pointers, in quick succession from guard Wyatt Battalie with just over six minutes to play, helped the Panthers turn a 55-50 lead into a double-digit advantage late, and that edge on the scoreboard proved to be too much for the Chargers to overcome.
Hillsdale refused to go quietly. Trailing 73-63 with under a minute to play, Charger freshman Patrick Cartier got an offensive rebound and a layup, drawing the foul and hitting the free throw to cut into the lead.
On the ensuing play, Cartier stole the inbounds pass, finding senior Dylan Lowry for a 3-pointer that cut Kentucky Wesleyan's lead to 73-69 with 41 seconds to play.
But Hillsdale still needed the Panthers to miss free throws to have a chance to cut the deficit to a one-possession game, and while KWC wasn't perfect from the line late, the Panthers were good enough to close out the victory.
Cartier had a huge night for Hillsdale to keep the Chargers in the game, finishing with 25 points on 11 of 12 shooting from the floor and adding eight rebounds and four assists.
Lowry also played a strong game in his final appearance in a Charger uniform, finishing with 20 points and four rebounds, while junior Austen Yarian added 11 points and five rebounds, and fellow junior Hill chipped in 11 points, four rebounds and four assists.
The loss is a tough one for Hillsdale, which had an excellent season and entered the GMAC Tournament as the top seed, going 15-3 in conference play and 19-9 overall.
The Chargers were hoping to make a deep run on their home court in the postseason, but still have plenty to celebrate, including clinching a share of their first GMAC regular season title and just their second regular season conference title since moving to the NCAA Division II level.
Hillsdale bids farewell to four seniors who've played a big role on the team over the last five seasons, including Lowry, who scored 1,000 points in his Charger career and will almost certainly finish as a two-time All-GMAC player, and Mike Travlos, who was one of the team's top subs as a senior and stepped into the starting lineup when Davis Larson went down with a season-ending injury and helped guide the team to a share of the GMAC title.
Despite the losses, the Chargers will return a strong lineup in 2020-21, with four starters slated to return including Larson, back from injury, and Cartier, who emerged as a star in his freshman season, to chase another GMAC crown.
Photo: MaryKate Drews