Though the Hillsdale College women’s basketball team started their season at full speed, this weekend’s games showed that the Chargers are still gearing up as their first conference games approach.
The Chargers (3-1) routed Oakland City 93-54 on Friday and suffered their first loss of the season to Mercyhurst 69-61 on Saturday in the St. Joseph’s College Thanksgiving Classic in Rensselaer, Indiana.
“We played really well overall over the weekend in a lot of areas, but we faced some adversity, and I don’t think we reacted to that adversity as well as we need to do in the future,” head coach Todd Mitmesser said.
On Friday, the Chargers continued a trend of frequent substitutions in order to keep up a fast-paced, aggressive offensive attack. The Chargers outran Oakland City from the start, building a 26-12 lead in the first quarter.
For the second time this season, every player on the roster scored, leading to 64 points from the bench. Mitmesser often substituted all five players at a time to keep the Chargers’ legs and shooting arms fresh.
“It’s working really well right now, because of the depth of our team. You just go in and push for two minutes,” said sophomore Allie Dittmer, who made 4-of-5 field goal attempts in nine minutes of playing time on Friday.
Even with 14 players sharing court time, the Chargers discovered on Saturday that their relentless attack takes a toll, as the Chargers struggled with shooting against Mercyhurst, scoring four points in the second quarter and making only 20 percent of their 3-point shots.
“Playing two games in two days at the pace we play is going to affect shooting some at this point in the season,” Mitmesser said. “It’s still an adjustment for their bodies to adapt to this pace. When we get to games, it’s a little more intense.”
Senior Kelsey Cromer said playing two games so close together was more of a mental than physical challenge.
“We have to get ready for competition in a short amount of time,” Cromer said. “We need to refocus and be ready to adjust when the games get closer.”
Mercyhurst’s zone defense also slowed down the Chargers, since they practice mostly against a man-on-man defense, Dittmer said.
“We couldn’t just go, go, go all the time against Mercyhurst,” Cromer said. “They figured out our press quickly, and we weren’t able to get as many fast breaks.”
Cromer suffered a concussion in the fourth quarter after scoring 13 points in 13 minutes of play, which also affected the team’s ability to score quickly, Mitmesser said.
Though Cromer will not play in the Chargers’ first GLIAC conference game against Tiffin tonight, she said the whole team will continue to gain experience that will pay off when playing other GLIAC teams who don’t substitute as much.
“Everyone’s starting to understand their role,” Cromer said. “Now that we’ve played a couple games, you can see more how our roles are developing and complimenting each other.”
Mitmesser announced Tuesday that the team elected four team captains: junior Morgan Blair, senior Kayla Geffert, senior Ashlyn Landherr, and senior Sarah Theut.
Dittmer sees leadership developing even outside the team captains, especially with every player getting time on the court.
“Everybody’s a leader,” Dittmer said. “Everybody really steps up and has their role.”
The Chargers will open GLIAC conference play with two home games this week. The Chargers host Tiffin at 6 p.m. tonight, and Ohio Dominican at 1 p.m. Saturday.
