The Hillsdale College women’s basketball team lost 76-70 to the University of Findlay on Saturday, but not without putting up a hard fight.
Despite having a young team and several injuries, the Chargers held the Oilers, who stand at 12-3 in the GLIAC, at bay for most of the first half. They led the Oilers by as many as six points, but Findlay pulled ahead in the last eight minutes.
Findlay closed out the first half with a 32-27 lead, and kept up the winning streak through most of the second half. They led for the final 27 minutes of the game, and were as many as 14 points ahead early in the second half.
Playing those stretches of defense is “so deflating,” head coach Claudette Charney said.
The Chargers’ main trouble, she said, was poor rebounding.
“Definitely, we did a good job. We just gave them more looks than one at the basket,” she said. “We have to become a better rebounding team.”
Closing the gap toward the end was a matter of changing the look of the zone, Charney said.
“That stopped them,” she said.
In the final 10 minutes of the game, both teams kicked into high gear, and Hillsdale brought the score from 54-44 to a narrow margin of six points.
Freshman guard Kelsey Cromer led the Chargers with a game-high and career-high 20 points in 25 minutes on the court. Cromer’s left wrist is broken, but her cast did not stop her from shooting 7-for-10, including two three-point shots.
“I was pretty surprised, actually,” Cromer said with a smile at her success.
Cromer cannot dribble with her left hand, but said, “I just try to get in and do something positive.”
“Our biggest problem is our rebounding,” Cromer said. “If we had cut even three of those off it would have been a completely different game.”
Sophomore Kadie Lowery closely followed Cromer with a career-high 18 points scored, all in the final 20 minutes.
“My teammates screened a lot for me and that made it easy,” Lowery said. “I had a lot of open looks, and shots fell.”
Sophomore starter Megan Fogt also helped during the final minutes of the game with four successful free throws in the last eight minutes. She scored 12 points overall and snagged 10 rebounds, making the game her ninth double-double of the season.
The Chargers are now 7-11 overall and 4-11 in the GLIAC. They will play Tiffin University at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 7 at the Jesse Philips Arena. Their last confrontation with Tiffin on Jan. 10 on the Dragons’ court was a 68-53 loss for Hillsdale.
“Playing Tiffin at home, we need to avenge the loss at their place,” Charney said.
Hillsdale will then play at Ohio Dominican University at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 9. Ohio Dominican currently stands 5-13 overall and 2-13 in the conference. Hillsdale previously beat the Panthers 70-56 on Jan. 12 at Jesse Philips Arena.
