After starting the game strong, the Hillsdale College women’s basketball team lost to the Tiffin University Dragons by a score of 65-52 on Saturday.
The Chargers gained the lead early on and held it until about five minutes left in the first half. At that point, Tiffin gained momentum as Hillsdale fell back on their heels.
“We started turning the ball over, and they capitalized off of it. They were turning the ball over, too, but we weren’t scoring off of their mistakes,” junior Lea Jones said. “It was sloppy both ways, but they finished and we didn’t.”
The Chargers fought their way back to within five points of the Dragons with 7:42 left in the game, but could not quite convert offensively and got beat on the boards on both sides of the ball. Tiffin out-rebounded Hillsdale, 39-26.
“The biggest factor was turnovers. Yes, we could have rebounded the ball better, but the points they scored [12] off of our turnovers were the difference in the game,” head coach Claudette Charney said. “Even though we started out playing well, we got frazzled and caught up in the types of calls being made out there and didn’t regain our composure in the second half.”
Jones scored 14 while freshman Abbey Lovat stepped up to add 11.
Last Thursday, senior Chelsea Harrison led the Chargers in a dominant performance over Ohio Dominican University, 78-61. Harrison scored a career-high 30 points, including six 3-pointers and a 100 percent effort from the free throw line.
“Ohio Dominican played a lot of zone on us, so we were pretty open from the 3-point line,” Harrison said. “They were collapsing on our posts, so they would kick it out to whoever was on fire. I haven’t been having the greatest outside shooting game, so I was due to step up. But everyone played well.”
The Chargers established a firm lead about 3:30 into the game with a layup from senior captain Katie Bildner, and continued to build from there. Eleven Chargers received playing time in the game.
Hillsdale led by 10 at halftime. A few key 3-pointers in the second half — many by Harrison — blew the game wide open to secure a Charger victory. Ohio Dominican closed the gap to 11 with 4:12 left in the game, but could not stop the Chargers.
Splitting these two road games put the Chargers at fourth in the GLIAC South Division, with a conference record of 8-8. The North Division is less competitive, so the at-large spots will most likely be taken from the South Division. At this point in the season, the Chargers are looking promising for a berth in the tournament.
“We still have to win two games this week to assure us a berth, it makes no difference what our record is now,” Charney said. “We can’t rely on anyone else to lose or win, we have to win more than the eight games we have so far. We still have to take it one game at a time.”
The Chargers still have important games ahead of them as they enter the final two weeks of regular season play tonight, with a home rematch with Ohio Dominican, then an away contest at Saginaw Valley State University on Saturday, which are both key South Division games.
