The Hillsdale College women’s basketball team fell to Lake Erie University on Jan. 28, and to Ohio Dominican University on Jan. 30. Though the Chargers suffered two losses, the final scores were close, 78-76 against Lake Erie and 87-80 against Ohio Dominican.
Junior guard Grace Touchette said she felt the team played better against ODU than against Lake Erie.
“We played a lot more cohesively in the Ohio Dominican game,” Touchette said. “The Lake Erie game, we had a really rough start and that put us behind. It was tough to come back and have the energy to keep going and take the lead and keep it.”
Head coach Charlie Averkamp said although the Chargers didn’t put their best foot forward against Lake Erie, he’s still proud of the way they bounced back and played well against ODU.
“We battled back and made it competitive,” Averkamp said. “The challenging part of playing Thursday and Saturday is we only had one day to prepare for Ohio Dominican. We come out on Saturday and we have a one point lead with three minutes left. It’s a completely different team. That’s the challenge for us this season, is ‘Which team’s gonna show up when, and where are we gonna be when it comes to tip off time?’”
Averkamp said some of his favorite parts of the game against ODU included watching Touchette and sophomore forward Sydney Mills score points, as well as watching sophomore forward Maverick Delp boost the team’s energy in the first half of the game.
“On Saturday, I thought we had a lot of different people step up,” Averkamp said. “A lot of positives, but at the end of the day we want to focus on getting more victories.”
He also noted freshman guard Dani Salenbien hitting a 3-pointer right before halftime.
“It’s fun to see her grow during her freshman season,” he said.
After having played much of the season without spectators, Mills said having spectators over the weekend was essential for keeping the team’s energy up during the game.
“The fans are definitely a momentum booster at games,” Mills said. “While we were able to create energy for ourselves without fans, it’s always great to have extra support and cheering from family and friends.”
Touchette said having fans in the stands makes a big difference on the team’s performance.
“It’s really nice to have our support systems back,” Touchette said. “It brings us a lot of energy so we don’t have to rely solely on ourselves, the bench, and the coaches. It’s more fun to play in front of people and know that people care about you and want to watch you play basketball. It’s been really good.”
The Chargers also took on the Tiffin University Dragons on Wednesday, Feb. 3 on their home court. They suffered a 73-81 loss, despite leading at the half. The Dragons came out of the locker room with a 23-12 run in the third quarter, building a gap the Chargers just couldn’t close.
The women’s basketball team will play against Findlay University on Feb. 6 at 1 p.m. in the George Roche Sports Complex, and at Malone University on Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. The livestream for the event can be found on Hillsdale’s athletics website.
