The Hillsdale College men's basketball team got off to great start in Thursday's road contest at Walsh, but second half shooting struggles proved to be too much to overcome in a 65-51 loss to the Cavaliers.
The Chargers never trailed in the first half, jumping out to a 13-2 lead behind a hot shooting start from sophomore Ashton Janowski. After the Cavaliers cut it to six, 20-14, with 9:39 to play in the half, Hillsdale responded with another 10-0 run punctuated by a Joe Reuter dunk to take a 30-14 lead.
That would be the high water mark in the game for Hillsdale, as Walsh rallied back to end the half on a 14-3 run to cut Hillsdale's lead to five, and in the second half, the Chargers went cold offensively, scoring just 18 points and shooting 24.1 from the floor and 18.2 from the 3-point line. A strong defensive effort kept Hillsdale in front for the first 11 minutes of the period, but Walsh took the lead at the 8:52 mark and never trailed again, finishing off a 10-0 run to take a 50-44 edge with 5:23 to play. A Mikey McCollum 3-pointer out of a timeout ended the run and kept Hillsdale within striking distance, but it wasn't enough as Walsh continued to pull away late.
Reuter led Hillsdale with 18 points and eight rebounds in another strong performance for the junior, Janowski added 16 points, and McCollum chipped in 11 points and two steals off the bench for the Chargers. Hillsdale had just seven turnovers but the Cavaliers turned that into 12 points at the other end, and won both the rebounding battle, 41-35, and outscored Hillsdale on points in the paint, 32-22. The Chargers were solid defensively, especially in the first half, holding Walsh to just 40% shooting from the floor and 28.6% from 3-point range in the opening period.
Hillsdale falls to 13-9 overall, 8-6 in G-MAC play with the loss, and plays an important game on Saturday at Lake Erie at 1 p.m., looking to get back on track and keep pace in a crowded and extremely tense race for a spot in the G-MAC Tournament.
Photo by Reva Ludwig