It wasn't easy, but the Hillsdale College men's basketball team put in the hard work and sweat necessary to win a game in the always-rugged GLIAC.
Thanks to some late offense by junior forward Kyle Cooper, the Chargers shook loose of Lake Erie College for a 68-58 win at Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena Sunday afternoon. Hillsdale is now 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the GLIAC.
The team will head to Quincy, Illinois next weekend for a two-day holiday tournament.
Hillsdale simply pounded Lake Erie on the boards, outrebounding the visitors 47-29 in the game, limiting the Storm to just 12 reounds as a team in the entire second half. Any edge like that was key in this game, which featured a total of 49 fouls called, and a scoring margin that never felt as comfortable for the home team as the score might indicate.
Cooper finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds on 8-for-13 shooting from the floor. Much of that production came late in the game, when the Chargers needed to counter some streaky 3-point shooting by the Storm. Eleven of his 24 came in the final 2:17 of the game. He also had 4 blocked shots in the win.
Just prior to that outburst, the Storm suddenly caught fire from beond the arc, making four of them in a span of less than three minutes down the stretch. But Hillsdale's offense, engineered by point guard Zach Miller, played with patience and poise, waiting to get the right shot, which is what usually happens when the ball is in Cooper's hands.
Also delivering big in the second half was freshman guard Stedman Lowry, who had 11 points, all coming in the second half. Cooper was called for his third foul less than two minutes into the second half, which meant the Chargers were going to need some secondary scoring. Lowry answered the bell, going 3-for-5 from the 3-point stripe.
Junior Rhett Smith played with remarkable effort and energy, collecting a career-high 9 rebounds to go along with 7 points and 3 assists in 25 impact minutes on the court. Smith's activity level on the boards was a key in the Chargers dominating that most important aspect of the game.
The Storm hurt itself by missing 15 free throws, shooting 48 percent from the charity stripe in the ballgame. The Chargers outscored Lake Erie 30-12 in the paint.