The Hillsdale College women’s basketball team fell to Tiffin University in a 70-56 loss on Jan. 16 at the George Roche Sports Complex.
Head coach Charlie Averkamp said he thought the Chargers played well in the face of tough opposition.
“Offensively, I thought we did a good job,” Averkamp said. “Obviously we didn’t shoot a very high percentage, but we got the ball inside like we had talked about.”
By the two-minute mark of the first quarter, Tiffin had scored 16 points. The Chargers responded by going from eight to 12 points within those last two minutes. According to junior Anna LoMonaco, this run gave the team the encouragement they needed for the next quarter.
“That added a lot of energy to our game,” LoMonaco said. “It made us say, ‘We got this,’ instead of getting down on ourselves.”
The Chargers continued their streak by ending the second quarter with another run, making the score 34-30 with Tiffin in the lead.
“We battled back in that second quarter,” Averkamp said. “We could’ve folded, not shooting well. They kind of jumped on us but we didn’t really fold and we were able to go into half time with a little bit of momentum.”
Despite the loss, the Chargers still had good plays to celebrate. Sophomore Sydney Mills said some of the best moments of the game were the team’s energy spurts.
“The highlight of the game for me was our team finally seeing some fast breaks and getting the ball to the court fast,” Mills said. “I think if we continue to do that in the future we’ll be really successful.”
Another positive note came from LoMonaco who led the Chargers in scoring and earned her career-high of 15 points
“It was exciting to be able to put up points,” LoMonaco said. “I wish the game would’ve been closer but it felt a lot closer than the score was.”
Mills said she thought LoMonaco’s career-high testified to her growing confidence.
“I think Anna really stepped out of her shell in this last game,” Mills said. “I think we’re going to see more from her in that aspect.”
LoMonaco said the team will continue working on defense in preparation for future games.
“We worked a lot this week on getting driven middle,” LoMonaco said. “That would be an area that we have to improve upon. We need to cut them off so they don’t have straight line drives. It messes up our whole defensive system.”
Mills said she hoped the team’s defensive strategy would prime them to do well against their next opponent.
“I think the main thing we’re going to focus on is staying disciplined on defense,” Mills said. “Maintaining the drive we’ve been working on all week will be really beneficial in the next game.”
Averkamp said he was looking forward to the team’s next game, which will be an away game against Trevecca Nazarene University, Jan. 21, 4:30 p.m. CST. The Chargers will also play Kentucky Wesleyan University on the same road trip on Jan. 23 at 12 p.m. CST.
“We don’t really know a whole lot about them but the good thing is that we can focus on ourselves,” Averkamp said. “We’re excited to get out there, compete, and go to work with this team.”