It all comes down to tonight.
After splitting last weekend with a 74-73 home victory over the Ferris State Bulldogs on Thursday followed by a 77-59 defeat at Grand Valley State University on Saturday, the Hillsdale College men’s basketball team must defeat the Saginaw Valley Cardinals in their final regular season game tonight at 8 p.m. and see the 19th-ranked Lake Superior State Lakers beat the Northwood Timberwolves to advance to the GLIAC tournament.
The Chargers (12-13, 10-11 GLIAC) controlled their destiny after defeating the Bulldogs, but couldn’t keep up with Grand Valley on Saturday.
Grand Valley jumped out to a 31-20 lead with 5:47 remaining in the first half before the Chargers responded with a 13-4 run to cut the deficit to two points at the break.
But during the first 4:39 of the second half, Hillsdale committed six fouls, putting Grand Valley in the bonus early.
“When they get into the bonus that quickly it’s hard to play with the same defensive intensity,” said junior forward Kyle Cooper, who was named a First-Team Academic All-American yesterday.
“We talked about not fouling [during halftime] and we fouled way too much,” head coach John Tharp said. “It became a bit of a snowball effect on us.”
On Thursday, the Chargers took advantage of three outstanding performances, two big points, and one bizarre half-court shot to grab the close victory.
Junior forward Rhett Smith played another solid game off the bench with 10 points on 5-6 shooting and Cooper was dominant with 31 points and 17 rebounds.
But the most important play of the night came off one of Cooper’s two assists.
With 30 seconds remaining in regulation and the Chargers down by a point, Cooper drove to the basket and immediately drew a second defender in.
Cooper made the smart pass to Smith who was positioned under the basket, and he laid the ball in to give the Chargers the lead with 25 seconds remaining.
“The play that Kyle Cooper made with that great pass to Rhett [Smith] was tremendous,” Tharp said. “He just made a play and that’s what you need your guys to do.”
After the ball found the bottom of the net, Cooper let out a roar.
“To beat a good team like that on our home court in the fashion that we did, it was just an emotional game and sometimes it overwhelms you. I just got really excited,” Cooper said. “When you play games like that in front of a home crowd that’s cheering against a good team and it comes down to the wire and you’re able to pull it out, it makes everything feel worth it. There’s no better feeling.”
The Bulldogs had one more chance to take the victory, but senior forward Ian Sheldon kept Ferris State’s Drew Lehman from getting an open look, and Cooper grabbed the rebound to seal the victory.
Junior guard Zach Miller scored eight points on the night and dished out 15 assists. Miller leads the GLIAC with 182 assists on the season.
“Our guys were able to put the ball in the basket and I was able to find them in good situations,” Miller said on his 15-assist performance.
A couple of Miller’s 15 assists came on alley-oop passes in the first half. With 19 minutes left in the second half, Miller attempted a half-court lob pass to Cooper. But rather than finding the hands of Cooper, the ball found the bottom of the net as an improbable 3-point shot.
“It was [meant to be a lob],” Miller said. “Cooper just decided not to jump.”
“I saw [Miller] let the ball go and I tracked the ball for a second I thought ‘There’s no way I’m getting that’ so I started stopping myself to get ready for it to come off the backboard,” Cooper said. “I kept tracking it and it just rattled in. That was better than what we were trying for anyway.”
Tonight, the Chargers will not only be playing for their playoff lives, but more importantly for their seniors on Senior Night.
“Putting aside all implications for the GLIAC playoffs this game is for our seniors in their last time playing a game at Hillsdale,” Cooper said. “There’s no other focus than just sending those guys off on their last home game in the right way.”