Purdue Northwest Men Suffer 66-56 Setback to Hillsdale in Classic

Purdue Northwest Men Suffer 66-56 Setback to Hillsdale in Classic

Hillsdale, Mich. – Despite 19 points from senior guard Tyree Coe (Fishers, Ind./Fishers), the Purdue Northwest men’s basketball team struggled offensively in a 66-56 loss to host Hillsdale College (Mich.) in the final game of the Hillside Thanksgiving Classic Wednesday afternoon at Potter Arena in Hillsdale, Mich.  Junior Jai Wright (Richmond, Ind./Richmond) and sophomore Lukas Vilkovsky (Kosice, Slovakia) each added 10 points for PNW.

Senior Torrence Johnson (Chicago Heights, Ill./Chicago Hope Academy) contributed six points and game-leading 11 rebounds, while freshman Richard Robertson (Fort Wayne, Ind./Fort Wayne Northrop) also tallied six points.  In addition, Wright finished with six rebounds and five assists.  Purdue Northwest shot 29 percent (18-for-63) from the field for the game. 

The Pride fell behind early with the Chargers jumping out to a 10-2 lead in the game’s first seven minutes.  Coe sank a three-pointer with just over nine minutes left in the first half to bring PNW within seven at 18-11, but Hillsdale quickly pushed its lead into double digits and a three-pointer by HC at the four-minute mark made the score, 31-18.  Neither team scored in the final four minutes of the half, so the score remained 31-18 at the intermission. 

Another three by Coe early in the second half made it a 10-point game, 31-21.  However, PNW scored just four points over the next seven minutes of action to fall behind, 45-25.  The Pride could not recover from the big deficit over the final 12 minutes of regulation getting as close as 10 points the rest of the way.

Purdue Northwest (0-4 overall) continues its road stretch on Saturday, November 25, heading to Oakland City, Ind., to take on Oakland City University.  The non-conference match-up is scheduled for a 3 p.m. CT start at Johnson Center Gymnasium.