Box score

February 26, 2011 – Saturday's regular season finale between the men's basketball teams from Hillsdale College and Wayne State turned out to be the first half of a two-game series between the schools.

The Chargers lost Saturday’s regular season finale, 74-59, to Wayne State University in Detroit’s Matthaie Center. Hillsdale is 20-5 overall and 14-5 in the GLIAC, and the two tems will play one another again at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the first round of the conference tournament.

The teams were tied in the standings so tightly, that the new GLIAC tiebreaking procedures required a coin toss to determine the home team in this game. That coin toss took place Saturday night at the GLIAC offices in Bay City, with a member of the Saginaw Valley State University athletic department acting as a witness. WSU enters the tournament as the #4 seed, while the Chargers are the #5 seed.

The tiebreaking formula divides teams into three tiers depending on their conference winning percentage, and points are awarded for which teams beat which teams, and whether those wins occurred at home or on the road. In a three-way tie of this type, Hillsdale’s head-to-head win over Grand Valley State is meaningless, as is Wayne State’s season sweep of the Chargers. GVSU ended up as the #3 seed in the conference, despite going 0-2 against the Chargers and Warriors during the regular season.

In Saturday’s game, the Chargers struggled offensively for the second game in a row. Hillsdale was held to 22 first-half points, trailing the host Warriors by eight points at intermission. Hillsdale made just six field goals and missed five free throws in the game’s first 20 minutes.

Although Hillsdale found its best offensive rhythm in the past week in the second half, it wasn’t enough to counter a Wayne State team that played with heart and energy on its senior day. One Chargers player who did play with that kind of efficiency and purpose was junior forward Brad Guinane.

Guinane scored a season-high 25 points, going 7-for-15 from the field while making all eight of his free throws. He helped the Chargers close to within seven points, 57-50, with seven minutes left in the game. But the Warriors ended the contest in a flourish, going on a 17-9 run to close out Hillsdale.

Junior Brent Eaton was the only other player to get double figures in scoring for Hillsdale, with 10 points. The Chargers shot 34 percent from the floor compared to 52 percent for the Warriors. The Chargers held a 31-30 rebounding advantage, but committed 16 turnovers, compared to just nine for Wayne State.