The Hillsdale College women’s basketball team lost their first two games of the season to GLIAC teams Saginaw Valley and Northwood.
“Obviously it’s exciting anytime you get to start a season,” Head Coach Charlie Averkamp said. “We were playing against two very tough teams, which is always challenging, but it’s also always good to see where our team is at. I think it did a great job of showing where we’re going to take this in the future.”
On Friday, the Chargers faced off against Saginaw Valley, ending the game with a score of 81-65.
“The other team had the home-court advantage,” junior forward Sydney Mills said. “We got some really good shots throughout the first quarter, but we just weren’t hitting them.”
Mills totaled 10 points, three rebounds, and five assists in the game, while senior guard Grace Touchette ended with 17 points to lead the team.
Mills said the Chargers picked up some momentum after putting in a 2-2-1 press.
“Basically we’ll have our two fastest people over the top,” Mills said. “So when the other team is bringing the ball down the court for their offensive possession, we’ll pick them up in the back court.”
The press brought the Chargers within five points of Saginaw’s score, they then stayed between five and 10 points of Saginaw for most of the second and third quarter.
“We had pretty dispersed efforts, but definitely battled back into it,” junior forward Maverick Delp said. “In the fourth quarter, they kind of just pulled away.”
The Chargers played again on Saturday against Northwood University, finishing with a 79-70 loss. Freshman Caitlin Splain led the team in scoring.
“We had some big three-pointers by Splain,” Mills said. “She had seven of them throughout the game. She really kept us in it, she’s very consistent with her shots.”
Splain ended with 21 points in 22 minutes on 50% shooting.
“We started out really poorly,” Mills said. “We were down about 20-4 halfway through the first quarter. Then, again, we put in our 2-2-1 press and we actually cut the lead to 2 points by the end of the first.”
The Chargers then took the lead and held it for the second and third quarters.
“They kind of had us rattled, but we really pushed the pace on them and got them flustered which I think will be huge for us going forward,” Delp said. “I don’t think a lot of teams are going to be able to run with us.”
In the fourth quarter, Northwood was able to turn the game with free throws.
“We were down by two,” Delp said. “We had the chance to lead again, but we missed a bucket and then we had a foul and they shot some free throws to close it.”
Despite the losses, Delp said the Chargers are confident for the season ahead.
“They were really good games against some really tough teams,” Delp said. “I think, even in just one weekend, we grew a lot as a team and really showed our ability to battle.”
The team will be playing Alaska Anchorage at Anchorage on Nov. 19 at 9:15 p.m.
“I’m really excited for the team to continue coming together, and bonding on the road.,” Averkamp said. “Alaska Anchorage is one of the best teams in Division II, but we’re going to focus on what we can control and what we can do to battle them.”