Despite a second half rally and a strong offensive performance from seniors Grace Touchette and Sydney Mills, the Hillsdale women’s basketball team came up short against the Walsh Cavaliers in an 85-79 loss Thursday night. Two days later, the Chargers surged ahead of the visiting Lake Erie Storm in the second quarter to come out with a 67-59 win on Senior Day.
Hillsdale improved to 15-12 overall and 8-9 in the G-MAC with the win and now sits in a three-way tie with Walsh and Ursuline for sixth place in the G-MAC. With three games left, Hillsdale must finish no worse than eighth place to secure a spot in the G-MAC tournament for the first time since the 2018-2019 season.
Mills walked away with a double-double in each game over the weekend for a performance which earned her G-MAC Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the second time this season.
After a delayed start against Walsh, the Chargers fell behind in the first half and trailed 45-38 at the half. Thanks to strong shooting from Touchette and sophomore Caitlin Splain, Hillsdale rallied in the third quarter to outscore Walsh 25-15 and took the lead by three points entering the fourth quarter.
A cold shooting streak from the Chargers and a strong performance from Walsh guards Morgan McMillen and Lexie Scarton allowed the Cavaliers to come back in the final three minutes and outscore Hillsdale 9-1 to take the win.
“In the first half, we struggled with getting our hands up on shooters,” Touchette said. “They have two graduate students and a fifth year player so a lot of experience on their team. They just hit shots, and some of them are really tough. It’s a matter of putting the ball in the basket and they did late in the game.”
Touchette led shooting with 19 points for the Chargers. Mills added 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds in the contest. Junior Dani Salenbein went 3-for-3 from deep and finished with 11 points.
The Chargers took the court by storm on Saturday, topping Lake Erie 67-59 in what was likely the final home game for six seniors on the team: Macy Berglund, Maverick Delp, Courtney Krol, Kennedy Pratt, Arianna Sysum, and Grace Touchette.
Hillsdale surged ahead in the second quarter, holding the Storm to 26.7% shooting from the floor and heading into the half with a 16-point lead. Lake Erie made an attempt at a comeback in the third quarter, cutting Hillsdale’s lead to two points. Mills responded with two buckets which put Hillsdale ahead by six points at the end of the third quarter. A 5-0 run in the fourth quarter followed by a 3-pointer from Mills with 2:09 on the clock secured the victory for the Chargers.
“Lake Erie plays pretty up tempo defensively so we really worked on cutting and finishing around the rim,” head coach Charlie Averkamp said. “And I thought our zone defense helped us in the second half because Lake Erie really came back in that third quarter. But for us, perseverance is key in February basketball, and I think the game on Saturday hopefully propels us as we go into the stretch run here.”
With 21 points and 15 rebounds, Mills led both categories for the Chargers on Saturday in her tenth double-double of the season. Splain added 12 points off the bench, and Touchette chipped in 11 points.
The Chargers look ahead to three final games on the road to finish out the regular season. On Thursday, they will face G-MAC fourth place Malone before challenging No. 1 ranked Ashland on Saturday.
“One game at a time is the biggest thing,” assistant coach Brianna Brennan said. “So our focus right now is Malone. We were in it with them, even had the lead a little bit and just watched it dwindle the first time so we’re excited to get another shot at them and continue to tighten up our defense.”
