The Hillsdale College men's basketball team shut down host Northwood's offense, taking a double-digit lead at halftime to roll to a 76-51 road victory on Saturday.
The Chargers forced the Timberwolves into an inefficient shooting night on their home floor, holding them to just 33.9 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from three-point range, while also badgering Northwood into 13 turnovers, nine of which came off of Hillsdale steals.
After a back-and-forth start to the game, Hillsdale seized control right before halftime, using a 14-4 run to turn a three-point edge into a 39-24 halftime lead. Six different players scored for the Chargers during that eight-and-a-half minute stretch, while Hillsdale held Northwood to just 2 for 11 shooting from the floor and forced three turnovers.
The Chargers didn't let up after the break, continuing to attack Northwood from all angles offensively while playing stifling defense to build their lead as high as 64-36 with 7:52 to play. Northwood found its rhythm late with the contest no longer in doubt, scoring 15 points in the final eight minutes, but never threatened to get back in the game against Hillsdale.
The Chargers got a tremendous contribution from their bench in the victory, with 34 points from non-starters in the contest to Northwood's six. Hillsdale also won the rebounding battle 40-32 against the Timberwolves and hammered Northwood in the paint offensively, outscoring the Timberwolves 42-16 in points from the restricted area.
Junior Joe Reuter led Hillsdale with 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists, while sophomore Ashton Janowski added 10 points and two assists as well, and junior Cole McWhinnie also chipped in 10 points, three rebounds and three assists as well.
Senior Sam Vasiu added nine points, five rebounds and four steals for the Chargers, while redshirt freshman Garrett Bolte played his best game to date so far, with nine points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes of action. Senior Charles Woodhams added eight points and six rebounds as well for Hillsdale.
With the victory, the Chargers improve to 7-1 overall, and are one of three teams sitting atop the G-MAC standings at 3-0 overall, along with fellow G-MAC unbeatens Kentucky Wesleyan and Trevecca Nazarene. Hillsdale next travels to Malone this coming Saturday, Dec. 16, looking for another quality road win against a conference opponent in its final G-MAC contest before Christmas.
Photo by Reva Ludwig