Even the best basketball teams have nights where putting the ball in the hoop is a struggle.
In those games, having a rock-solid defense to fall back on is critical, and excellent defense helped the sixth-ranked Hillsdale men's basketball team see off an upset bid on the road by host Tiffin in a 63-53 victory on Saturday.
The Chargers had an off shooting night on the road, particularly in the first half, when Hillsdale shot 29.6% from the floor and 14.3% from 3-point range, both the Chargers' worst marks in a half this season.
But Hillsdale's defense kept Tiffin from taking advantage of their offensive struggles to build a lead. The Chargers held the Dragons to just a 39.3% shooting percentage of their own and didn't concede a single made 3-pointer on eight attempts, allowing the Chargers to hit halftime trailing just 23-22.
With Hillsdale's defense locked in, a strong start to the second half was all the Chargers needed to take control. Hillsdale outscored Tiffin 13-4 in the first four minutes of the second half to turn a deficit into a nine point lead, then never trailed again in the contest. Hillsdale stretched its lead to 14 on a Jack Gohlke 3-pointer at the 11:19 mark in the second half, then held off multiple late pushes by the Dragons to take a 10 point victory.
A big part of Hillsdale's defensive effort came on the glass, as the Chargers outrebounded Tiffin 39-28 in the contest and conceded just two offensive rebounds to the Dragons. Gohlke played a big role, grabbing a career-high 10 boards to go with a Hillsdale-best 16 points for his first career double-double, as wel as three assists.
Senior center Peter Kalthoff just missed a double-double of his own with 10 points and eight rebounds, and senior Kyle Goessler chipped in 13 points, five rebounds and three assists. Sophomore Joe Reuter chipped in 12 points as well to give the Chargers four double-figure scorers.
Senior point guard Cole Nau chipped in four points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals for the Chargers, and Ashton Janowski and Eric Radisevic each added four points off the bench.
With the victory, the Chargers improve to 12-0 overall and 5-0 in the G-MAC, maintaining a one-game edge over one-loss Malone and Ashland in the standings. Hillsdale is now just one win away from tying the program record for 13 straight victories to start the season set in 2010-11. The Chargers will be off over Christmas, and pick up again on Dec. 31, traveling to a much-improved Lake Erie team for a tricky road contest at 2 p.m. that Saturday.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan