Basketball is often described as a make or miss game.
That was definitely the case at the free throw line in the closing seconds of Saturday's 66-63 road win by 18th-ranked Hillsdale over Kentucky Wesleyan.
Clinging to a 60-59 lead with under 30 seconds to play, senior guard Connor Hill went 4 for 4 from the line and sophomore Kyle Goessler was 2 for 2 as well for the Chargers to help Hillsdale gut out a hard-fought victory.
At the other end, Kentucky Wesleyan got a big 3-pointer from guard Wyatt Battaile with two seconds to play to make things interesting, but likely rue two missed opportunities at the line in the closing seconds -- including a miss on the front end of a one-and-one trailing 60-59 with 24 seconds to play.
Hill's clutch performance under pressure personified a great effort by the Chargers in the final five minutes of the contest to pull out the victory.
The Chargers took the lead early in the first half and held it until halfway through the second half, going up by as many as nine points at multiple junctures in the game, but Kentucky Wesleyan closed the gap quickly after halftime, and finally pulled ahead with 8:09 to go in the second half.
A Ben Sisson layup with 4:47 to play gave the Panthers a 54-49 edge, their largest lead of the game.
With a potential road upset looming, the Chargers responded in a big way down the stretch, led by sophomore Patrick Cartier, who score seven of his game high 21 points in the final four minutes to help the Chargers get back to even, then found senior Davis Larson on a back-door cut for the go-ahead layup with 33 seconds to play.
Cartier was a problem the Panthers couldn't find a good solution to all night long, finishing with 21 points, 12 rebounds and four assists for his third double-double of the season and the sixth of his career. Hill also had a big contest, finishing with 17 points and four assists and hitting several huge shots in the second half to go along with his clutch free throws at the end.
Goessler chipped in eight points off the bench for the Chargers and sophomore Cole Nau hit two 3-pointers as well.
Charger big men Austen Yarian and Tavon Brown didn't have huge nights offensively but made significant contributions to the win in other areas. Yarian finished with five points, 11 rebounds and three assists and Brown chipped in five points, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
As a team, Hillsdale overcame a relatively cold shooting night against an excellent Panther defense by converting at the free throw line -- going 11 of 13 from the charity stripe -- and by getting stops at the other end, holding Kentucky Wesleyan to 42.3 percent shooting from the floor.
The Chargers are now 9-1 overall, and 9-1 in G-MAC play. Hillsdale remains in a three-way tie for first in the league with Findlay and Walsh, and will return home this week to play Lake Erie at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night and Ohio Dominican at 3 p.m. on Saturday in critical G-MAC contests.
Photo by Summer Fields