Trailing by 12 with under four minutes to play, the 13th-ranked Hillsdale College men's basketball game made a furious late rally against host Malone on Saturday, cutting the Pioneers' lead to four with a minute to play.
But the big comeback was just not quite enough in the end, as the Chargers took a 61-55 loss to Malone for their first G-MAC defeat of the season.
With the game on the line, Hillsdale went on a big 10-2 run to cut the deficit to 55-51 with a minute to play, using full-court pressure and strong defensive rebounding to keep the Pioneers off balance and getting to the line at the other end to close the gap.
But while Hillsdale was very good down the stretch, it needed to be perfect to completely overturn the deficit it faced, and the Chargers were just shy of that, missing two free throws in the stretch that could have cut the game to one possession and really put the pressure on the Pioneers.
Up by four, Malone was able to burn the clock it needed to, convert a bucket late in the shot clock, and then go 4 for 4 from the line to seal the game.
Despite solid defense throughout and that big push late, Hillsdale was unable to overcome a difficult shooting night on the road. The Chargers shot 34.5% from the floor and just 20.8% from 3-point range, marks that made the Chargers unable to sustain runs for most of the contest and susceptible to a big push by the Pioneers in the second half. Even Hillsdale's big run mostly came from points at the free throw line, as the Chargers scored eight of their final 14 from the charity stripe. The Chargers were able to turn 10 Malone turnovers into 17 points to stay in the contest to the end as well, but to no avail.
Junior Joe Reuter led the Chargers with 16 points on the night, including 5 of 8 shooting from the floor, and senior Charles Woodhams chipped in 11 points and six rebounds as well. CJ Yarian added eight points for the Chargers, Cole McWhinnie chipped in seven points, six rebounds and three steals, and Ashton Janowski added six points.
Hillsdale falls to 8-2 overall, and 3-1 in G-MAC play with the road loss. The Chargers will now step out of conference play briefly to finish out 2023, with a game at Saginaw Valley State on Tuesday at 1 p.m. and a Dec. 30 contest after Christmas at home against Grace Christian at 3 p.m.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan