Three Chargers scored in double figures as the Hillsdale College men’s basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak with a 61-49 road victory over the Northern Michigan University Wildcats on Saturday afternoon.
Junior forward Kyle Cooper led the Chargers with 18 points and 14 rebounds and redshirt freshman guard Stedman Lowry contributed 14 points. But it was the play of junior forward Rhett Smith that made the difference offensively.
“When we get three guys in double digits it means the world to us,” head coach John Tharp said.
Smith scored 15 points off the bench on perfect 6-6 shooting from the field and grabbed nine rebounds in 28 minutes of action.
“I’m really proud of Rhett,” Tharp said. “He was aggressive but he played within himself. He didn’t overthink things and he took advantage of whatever situation that he was in.”
Smith scored five of his 15 points during an important 9-0 run in the first half to swing a four-point deficit into a five-point lead.
“That was definitely the best game that I’ve ever seen Rhett play here,” Cooper said. “The way he was scoring and the way he used his size and strength to rebound well are things that we expect out of him so to see him putting in the effort and seeing it come to fruition was great.”
The Chargers also benefitted from better execution on the defensive end. The Wildcats shot just 35 percent from the field.
“We played really good ball-screen defense,” Tharp said. “They had a senior [Chavis Mattison] who was averaging over 20 points and 12 rebounds in the last five games and really hurting people with their ball-screen attack and we did a tremendous job stopping that.”
Hillsdale committed 11 turnovers, but those mistakes didn’t lead to easy buckets for Northern Michigan. The Wildcats scored just two fast-break points on the afternoon.
With the win, the Chargers moved into a tie with the Northwood Timberwolves at 9-10 for the final spot in the GLIAC tournament with three games remaining.
“Our backs were against the wall on Saturday. It was a must win,” junior point guard Zach Miller said.
Hillsdale entered Saturday’s competition a game behind Northwood in the GLIAC standings, but the Timberwolves lost to the Grand Valley State University Lakers on Saturday night to drop back to 9-10.
“I was the biggest Laker fan Saturday night,” Miller said. “You don’t think a Hillsdale player would ever say that but I was cheering them on as much as I ever have.”
While the Chargers will be keeping an eye on the Timberwolves, they realize Northwood’s games mean nothing if they can’t take care of business on their end.
“Having them lose definitely is a good thing but at the end of the day none of it matters if we don’t win games,” Cooper said. “We’ve just got to play our best basketball right now and we can’t think about too much else.”
The Chargers host a struggling Ferris State Bulldogs team tonight at 8 p.m. The Bulldogs have lost four games in a row but are still 14-5 in the GLIAC.
“Ferris State is going to come in here angry and hungry,” Cooper said. “It’s going to be us trying to impose our will and play our style of basketball.”
Following their home matchup against the Bulldogs, the Chargers will travel to Grand Valley to face the Lakers on Saturday night before finishing up the regular season with a home matchup against Saginaw Valley on Feb. 26.
Northwood hosts Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, and Lake Superior State to finish up their regular season.
The Chargers will be rooting for those teams over this final week of the season, but none of those games matter if they don’t succeed themselves.