As the season winds down, the Hillsdale College men's basketball team continued a furious push to the finish line with a fourth-straight victory on Thursday, rolling past host Ohio Dominican in a 73-49 beatdown to move into a tie for third place in the G-MAC standings.
Hillsdale seized control of the game midway through the first half, going on a 12-0 run over four minutes to blow open a 10-10 game and take a lead the Chargers would never relinquish. By halftime, Hillsdale had stretched its advantage to 39-22, and the Chargers answered a second-half run by ODU that cut the lead to eight with a 21-7 run over 10 minutes to put the game away.
The Chargers dominated the contest at both ends of the floor, shooting 60.1% on field goals while holding the Panthers to just 35.1% from the floor. Key to that statistic was Hillsdale's dominance in the paint -- the Chargers outscored Ohio Dominican 54-26 in points in the paint, outrebounded the Panthers 34-28 and gave up just four second-chance points. The Chargers also took advantage of 17 ODU turnovers, turning the Panthers' giveaways into 19 points at the other end.
Junior Joe Reuter had a stellar and highly efficient game for Hillsdale, shooting 8 of 12 from the floor with a team-high 17 points, along with five points, five steals, four assists and two blocks. Sophomore Ashton Janowski was close behind for the Chargers with 15 points on 7 of 12 shooting to lead a balanced attack for the Chargers, and senior Eric Radisevic made all five of his shot attempts off the bench to add 10 points as well.
Senior Samuel Vasiu added nine points, three rebounds and three steals for Hillsdale, freshman Caleb Glaser chipped in seven points and four rebounds, and freshman Mikey McCollum chipped in seven points for Hillsdale.
The victory puts the Chargers in a strong position with just two games remaining in the regular season. At 17-8 overall and 11-6 in G-MAC play, Hillsdale is well-positioned to host a first-round game in the G-MAC Tournament and has an outside chance at claiming the top overall seed if it can win its final two games. Getting to that point won't be easy however, as Hillsdale finishes the season by playing arch-rival Findlay back-to-back in two challenging games this Saturday and next Thursday.
Hillsdale plays the first leg of that two game series against the Oilers on Saturday at 3 p.m., looking to take down Findlay on the road and put pressure on the Oilers for the return trip to Hillsdale on Thursday, as Findlay is also fighting for its G-MAC Tournament life down the stretch in a tight race for the final spots in the tourney.
Photo by Reva Ludwig