John Ellenwood is used to sweating until the final buzzer sounds against rival Hillsdale.

“Hillsdale is a great opponent,” said the seventh year head coach. “Anytime you beat them it’s a great thing. We played them so many times and its either been overtime or a last second shot, that was the first time I was looking up [at the scoreboard] and was like “when will three minutes end?’ because they could comeback.”

While Ellenwood may have been nervous in the final three minutes, the fans at Kates Gymnasium were certainly not, as the Ashland University men’s basketball team (8-0) steamrolled over Hillsdale College (5-1), 74-53.

AU raced out of the gate, scoring the first 21 points of the game. Wendell Davis connected from long range to cap the 21-0 spurt before Nate Neveau converted a layup at the 14:08 mark of the first half to get the Chargers on the board.

“We made shots tonight,” said Ellenwood. “We got a lot of confidence right now. It helped we were able to push the ball off our rebounds and get some easy baskets early. It kind of snowballed from there.”

AU pushed the lead to as many as 23 in the first half and took a 20 point cushion into the halftime break. The Eagles slowed down the pace in the second stanza and cruised to their seventh straight victory to start the 2015-16 campaign.

The 18th ranked Eagles won their third straight contest against an undefeated club, giving the Chargers their first blemish of the season after handing Ferris State and Grand Valley State their first losses last weekend.

“We just want to 1-0 in our next game against Saginaw [Valley State],” said Ellenwood. “I know that is coach talk but that is the way we have to think. “

Davis led the way for AU, knocking down all four triples he attempted and finished the day with 20 points and 8 boards.

“Wendell is hungry. And when you have a player that is hungry, you feed them and let them go,” said Ellenwood.

Davis was matched up against Hillsdale star forward Kyle Cooper, and limited the pre-season all-American to 13 points on 5-11 shooting.

“Wendell on Cooper did an outstanding job,” said Ellenwood. “Wendell does a great job preparing himself for games. He sat and watched film for an hour on Cooper the other day and it paid off tonight.”

Ashland held Hillsdale to just three of 16 from behind the arc, while draining 11 of treys of their own.

“Boo Osborne, Nick Bapst, Torin Wetzel, and Wendell all hit at least two threes and that’s outstanding for us,” said Ellenwood. “Those guys are doing a good job sharing the wealth and its not just one player because when you have a bunch of guys hitting shots it opens up the floor and that’s our goal.”

The Eagles will finish 2015 with home contests against Saginaw Valley State and Shawnee State before hitting the road against Northwood and Lake Superior State in the New Year.

“We will look back in the rearview after the season is over,” said Ellenwood. “But we have bigger goals in mind and the next person in the way is Saginaw Valley and we need to go after them and be ready to go.”