It wasn't the prettiest road win for the Hillsdale College men's basketball team on Wednesday night.
But the Chargers' 65-54 win over Ohio Dominican was enough to earn Hillsdale another mark on their banner, and that's what counts.
The Chargers suffocated the Panthers defensively for the second time this season to improve to 16-1 in conference play and clinch a share of their second-straight Great Midwest Athletic Conference regular season title.
While it wasn't quite as impressive a defensive performance as the first meeting between the two teams on Jan. 30, where the Chargers held ODU to just 41 points, Hillsdale still controlled the game defensively from start to finish, forcing the Panthers to make tough, contested shots and holding ODU six points below its season average offensively.
That consistent defensive performance gave the Chargers room to breathe offensively and overcome a slow start. Hillsdale led just 28-26 at halftime but slowly pulled away in the second half by creating more shooting opportunities at the rim and getting to the foul line. Hillsdale shot just 45.8% from the floor in the first half but improved to 58.3% in the second.
Sophomore Patrick Cartier scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half to help Hillsdale build a double-digit lead, and also chipped in six rebounds. Senior Davis Larson chipped in 12 points for the Chargers on another efficient night of 5 for 7 shooting from the floor, and also added five rebounds.
Senior point guard Connor Hill chipped in 11 points for his fourth-straight game in double-figures for Hillsdale, and sophomore Tavon Brown added 10 points, seven rebounds and a block.
Senior forward Austen Yarian was an excellent facilitator for the Chargers on the night, dishing out a career high eight assists to go with four points and two blocks.
The win means Hillsdale, at 16-1, is now three games ahead of 12-4 Findlay in the conference standings with three games to play and can finish with no worse than a share of the G-MAC regular season crown. The Charger shared the G-MAC regular season title with Findlay in 2019-20.
That said, it's hard to imagine the Chargers would be satisfied with another share. They'll head into Saturday's 3 p.m. game against Ohio Valley at home looking to do something Hillsdale hasn't done in almost a decade -- clinch an outright conference crown on its home floor.
The last Charger men's basketball team to win an outright regular season title was the 2011-12 squad, which won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference crown with a 16-3 conference record and qualified for the NCAA Division II tournament.
The win over Ohio Dominican tonight was big for another reason -- it was head coach John Tharp's 450th career win as a college basketball coach. Tharp now has a career record of 450-243 overall, and is also closing in on his 250th win at Hillsdale, with a 246-134 record in his 14-year tenure as Charger head coach.
Photo by Anthony Lupi