February 7, 2013 - Playing loose, confident and with precision, the Hillsdale College men's basketball team took care of business Thursday night, defeating Tiffin University 80-63 at Jesse Philips Arena.
The team's second win in a row improves its record to 14-6 overall and 10-6 in the GLIAC. The Chargers will spend Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, taking on Ohio Dominican University at 1 p.m.
Hillsdale turned in a steady performance in this win, leading by 20 or more points through much of the second half. The team scored 40 points in each half and shot 55 percent for the game while holding the explosive Dragons to 41 percent shooting for the game.
In two wins over the Dragons this season, the Chargers averaged 88 points per game, their most versus any foe this season.
Tiffin is a team very capable of knocking anyone off, as shown by its win at Findlay a couple weeks ago. But Hillsdale grabbed control of this game from the outset and never let the Dragons gain any confidence or flow on offense.
Four of Hillsdale's five starters shot better than 50 percent from the floor, with four players scoring in double figures. Senior center Nick Washburn played a strong game, with a team-high 19 points to go along with seven rebounds and two blocked shots. He missed part of the first half after getting hit hard in the face by a Tiffin player. He had to change his jersey at halftime, but wearing number 34 didn't slow him down a bit.
Junior Tim Dezelski made six of his nine shots from the floor and had 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists in another complete performance. Junior Brandon Pritzl got off to a hot start shooting the ball and matched Dezelski's 14.
Junior Tony Nelson came off the bench to provide 12 points for the Chargers, hurting the Dragons with his inside-outside offensive skill.
As a team, Hillsdale went 13-for-24 from 3-point land, while limiting the Dragons to 31 percent from beyond the arc.
Tiffin's Joe Graessle, one of the GLIAC's top players, led all scorers with 30 points on 12-for-24 shooting from the field.
Photo by Sheridan Markatos