Courtesy: Ashley Van Hoose
The Chargers men’s basketball team lost to two of the top three teams in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, falling 91-73 to Lake Erie College Feb. 12 and 80-63 to Ashland University Feb. 14. The team’s season record dropped to 9-15 and its conference record is 6-10.
Against Lake Erie, Hillsdale got behind early, with their first two possessions resulting in Lake Erie getting 26 points off turnovers by the end of the night.
Head coach Keven Bradley said Lake Erie is very good at applying pressure to force quick decisions.
“Lake Erie is a pressing-trapping, five-in, five-out type of team,” Bradley said. “They stress you out with their different full court presses, traps, and rotations, and we did a poor job taking care of the basketball and making tough passes from the very first play of the game. That’s something we have to change moving forward.”
Turnovers continued to play a large role in the game. By the half, Lake Erie had already put up 50 points to Hillsdale’s 31 and shut down Hillsdale’s shooting to 33%. The Chargers threatened Lake Erie’s lead at the start of the second half with a 15-2 run, but Lake Erie responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to help keep a steady lead. Although Hillsdale outscored Lake Erie 42-41 in the second half, the halftime deficit was too great to overcome.
Sophomore forward Connor Stonebraker said he was proud of how the team fought back in the second half.
“I think everyone stepped on the floor with more confidence in the second half,” Stonebraker said. “Lake Erie is a team that likes to make you uncomfortable handling the ball and I believe we did a better job taking care of it and finding the open man in the second half.”
Hillsdale had their second road game of the week against Ashland. The Eagles attacked with a quick aggressive pace from the start, going up 8-0 within the first three minutes of the game. Hillsdale fought back and trailed 36-24 with just over four minutes left in the half. By the end of the half, however, Ashland had forced turnovers and fouls to put them well in control, leading 48-24. The Eagles made 32 to Hillsdale’s 6 in the first half.
Freshman guard Braylon Morris said he believes the key to changing the tempo of these games lies in the players’ mindsets.
“I believe it all lies in our energy,” Morris said. “We can’t allow negative things that happen over the course of the game to take away our energy and effort on both sides of the floor.”
Once again, the Chargers outscored their opponents in the second half, this time 39-32, but were not able to make a full comeback.
Senior guard and captain Ashton Janowski said the team needs to reset for the next few weeks.
“We need to calm down, take a deep breath, and rely on what makes our team unique and good,” Janowski said. “We need to screen, be physical on both ends of the floor, and take away what the other team does well. We didn’t do enough of that this week, and it showed.”
The Chargers face Kentucky Wesleyan College at home Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m., and Ohio Dominican University on the road Feb. 21.
