The Hillsdale College women’s basketball team defeated all three of their opponents last week in the first clashes of the season.
On Saturday, Hillsdale beat Ohio Midwestern College 70-59, and the win was head coach Claudette Charney’s 500th in her NCAA coaching career. She will be honored during halftime of the men’s match-up with Northwood tonight at 6 p.m.
In the win against the Rams, sophomore center Megan Fogt scored a career-high 27 points, making 13 of her 30 attempted field goals. She also grabbed the game-high number of rebounds, snagging 16 of Hillsdale’s 56.
Hillsdale outrebounded Ohio Midwestern 56-32, and had only 25 turnovers compared to their 33.
The victory came in the William Fleming Classic tournament at Kentucky State, where the Chargers also played Livingstone College on Friday, Nov. 23. It was another win for Hillsdale, 74-68.
Junior forward and starter Angela Bisaro racked up 22 points, more than any other player on Hillsdale’s or Livingstone’s team. She made seven of her 19 attempted field goals and eight of her 17 attempted free throws, but had three personal fouls and one turnover.
Freshman swingman Madison Berry led the bench, with six points in 14 minutes. She made all four of her free throws and one of her field goals, and had two personal fouls.
Altogether, Hillsdale made 27 of 33 attempted free throws, about 82 percent. That significantly topped Livingstone’s 22 out of 40 attempted free throws, only 55 percent.
The team took the floor on Nov. 20 for the first official game, and beat Urbana 83-74. After a last-minute 71-71 tie, the teams moved into overtime, where Hillsdale picked up the win.
“For our first game, after a month of practice, we did decent. We played hard,” coach Charney said. “We played our best in the last five minutes of the game.”
The win was impressive for a particularly young team. Seven of the 14 team members are freshmen this year, and coach Charney described the team as “very inexperienced.”
“We lost three of our top five scorers last year,” she said. “It’s going to be a process. You can’t replace experience that quickly.”
Junior guard Marissa DeMott agreed, saying, “This season we are very young so we have a very different team.”
She followed that by saying that since it was a win, Tuesday was a great start to the season. The women had only played one exhibition game this season, so they were eager to compete.
“We were all very ready to play against someone other than ourselves everyday,” DeMott said.
Four of the seven freshmen played for a significant amount of time in Tuesday’s game, including Ashlyn Landherr, who started and played more than 30 minutes. She scored nine points, grabbed seven rebounds, and had five assists.
“My coaches and teammates made me feel comfortable during the game so that I wasn’t terribly nervous,” Landherr said. “It felt awesome to start the year off with a win.”
One of the best performances came from Fogt, who scored a double-double, with 17 points and 17 rebounds. She said the double-double came as a surprise to her, but that she is pleased with it.
“I was just hoping to go out there and do the best I could for the team. I’m happy I helped us to get the win,” she said.
Junior guard Marissa DeMott also performed well, racking up 20 points, with six three-point-shots nailed out of her first eight attempts.
“It was a really good start along with our two wins we had in Kentucky this weekend as well, and I’m very excited for the rest of the season to come,” DeMott said.
Hillsdale will play Northwood University tonight at 8 p.m. at home. This game, along with Saturday’s 3 p.m. home contest against Lake Superior State, will open GLIAC play for the Chargers.
