In a back-and-forth game, the Hillsdale College men's basketball team got back on the winning track, 68-62 over Lake Erie College in Ohio Thursday night.
The win makes the Chargers 13-3 overall and 7-2 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. The win comes five days after a road loss snapped the team's five-game winning streak.
Sparking the win was a second-straight 20-point game from senior guard Stedman Lowry. He was active and productive early in the game, scoring 13 of his team-high 21 points in the first half. His shooting was key to Hillsdale building a lead that reached as high as 12 points in the first half. Hillsdale led 36-26 at intermission, but would be severely tested in the second half.
The Storm opened the second half on a 10-2 run and later went on a 16-4 run to take a six-point lead, 54-48, with 8:06 to go in the game.
But Hillsdale dug deep, as it so often has this season late in games, and pulled back into the lead with a series of defensive stops. After facing its steepest deficit, Hillsdale went on a game-ending 20-8 run, limiting the Storm to just one point per minute over the game's final eight minutes.
After the 8:06 mark, Lake Erie went 3-for-12 from the field and committed two turnovers, while on the other side, the Chargers scored points of 10 of their last 13 possessions to overcome the Storm and clinch the win.
Hillsdale held Lake Erie to 26 percent shooting from 3-point territory (5-for-19), while the Chargers' starting five held a 27-point scoring advantage over their counterparts from Lake Erie.
Junior guard Nate Neveau went 14-for-16 from the free throw line and finished with 19 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. Senior Ryan Badowski had 12 points and Nick Czarnowski added 9 points and 7 rebounds.