Hillsdale 78, Wayne St. 72

January 12, 2012 - Thursday night, the Hillsdale College men's basketball team returned to the same place which its 2010-11 season ended. And the team came away with one of its most gratifying wins of this season.

Thanks to another well-balanced effort, the Chargers topped Wayne State University 78-72 in Detroit's Matthaei Center. Hillsdale extended its winning streak to 10 games, and is now 14-1 overall and 8-0 in the GLIAC.

The Chargers travel to Allendale for a Saturday night contest against Grand Valley State University, scheduled for an 8 p.m. tipoff.

Thw Warriors won all three games against the Chargers a year ago, including a win in Detroit in the first round of the GLIAC Tournament, a game that ended Hillsdale's fantastic 2010-11 season. Thursday, the Chargers played in that building for the first time since then, and played with controlled aggression throughout.

Hillsdale enjoyed one of its best shooting games of the season, hitting 48 percent of its total shots, going 11-for-21 from the 3-point arc, and 19-for-21 from the free throw line. The Chargers needed all of those points to counter a big, athletic Warriors team that got big ballgames from two of their top players.

Ike Udanoh finished with 24 points and nine rebounds, and Ian Larkin had 18 points, connecting on four 3-point shots. The Warriors led a closely played game 63-60 midway through the second half when Hillsdale made its move.

The Chargers put a 9-0 run on WSU to jump out to a six-point lead, at a time when neither team could build a lead greater than four up to that point. Although Wayne State countered, the Chargers always had an answer, particularly coming from the right arm of senior Brad Guinane.

Guinane swished a 3-point shot that extended Hillsdale's lead to five points, 74-69, with 35 seconds left. It was a back-breaking shot that erased all thoughts of a late comeback by the Warriors. Guinane hit five 3-point shots in the game and 21 points to lead Hillsdale. He and Tyler Gerber made all four of their free throw attempts in the final 30 seconds of the game to sew up this win.

Sophomore Tim Dezelski took a beating, but played another tough game for the Chargers, coming off the bench to score 12 points. Hillsdale's bench outscored Wayne State's 21-4 in the ballgame.

Redshirt-freshman guard Cody Smith also played a big role in the win. He scored a season-high eight points in 10 minutes on the court at point guard. He made all three of his shots.

Junior center Nick Washburn scored nine points early in the first half to help get the Chargers off to a good start. Senior Brent Eaton had nine points, which gave him more than 1,000 in his Chargers' career. Eaton is the 30th player in school history to hit that mark, and one of the first to do it in his third season with the program in several years.

With the win, Hillsdale is now 3-0 against two of the three teams it lost to a year ago (Findlay and Wayne State), and maintains a two-game lead on the rest of the GLIAC in the conference standings.