After beating Findlay 89-73 on the road Saturday, the Chargers forced second-seeded Kentucky Wesleyan into overtime on the Panther’s home court in the G-MAC quarterfinals on Tuesday but lost 73-74 in the final two minutes.
Hillsdale finished the season 17-14 overall and 10-10 in the G-MAC with their best record since the 2018-2019 season.
In the Charger’s first conference tournament game in four seasons, senior Grace Touchette played the best game of her five-year career with a career-high 33 points. She finished fifth in career points in the history of the program with over 1,600.
“When you’re a senior going into your potential last game, you want to leave everything out there,” head coach Charlie Averkamp said. “I think you saw one of Grace Touchette’s best performances in the biggest game of the season. That’s how I’ll always remember her, as a big time player who wanted to play in big time games. She showed up, and she leaves here with her name all over the record books of everything that she’s done. I’m just lucky to have gotten to coach her.”
The Chargers went 17-of-26 from deep against Findlay to wrap up the regular season with their highest 3-point shooting percentage in a game since 2011 at 65.4% with five players scoring from beyond the arc.
“We ran our stuff. We weren’t focused on what Findlay was doing,” Averkamp said. “And I think we’ve got kids who can shoot the basketball. It was good to see Lauren taking another step forward. Caitlin and Carly have been consistent 3-point shooters for two years now. It was a full team win, but when our shooters were shooting that way, it was going to be tough to stop us.”
Sophomore Lauren McDonald went 6-of-7 from deep off of the bench against Findlay for a game-high 22 points. Sophomore Caitlin Splain went 4-of-6 from beyond the arc and scored 18 points for the Chargers. Sophomore Carly Callahan finished with nine points, senior Sydney Mills added 11 points and eight rebounds, and Touchette scored 17 points in the contest.
In the quarterfinal on Tuesday, seventh-seeded Hillsdale led against Kentucky Wesleyan for the majority of the contest, going into halftime with a 34-31 edge. The Panthers surged ahead in the fourth quarter to lead 64-61 with only three seconds on the clock and Charger possession.
Mills went to the line after a Panther’s shooting foul and sank her first free throw to get the score within two. She missed the second shot, but Touchette grabbed the rebound and put it up to tie the game 64-64 as the clock ran out.
“You dream of plays like that when you’re a kid practicing your free throws,” senior Maverick Delp said. “Sydney missed it perfectly on purpose. Ari screened Grace’s box out girl, and Grace just came up for the layup to send us into overtime.”
Touchette and McDonald scored in overtime to put the Chargers up 68-64 with 3:30 left in overtime, but the Panthers got an 8-0 run in the next three minutes. McDonald scored from the free throw line, and Splain hit a 3-pointer with one second left to bring the score to 73-74, but the Panthers ran out the clock on their next possession.
“I think the extended minutes got to us a little bit and our focus started to edge out just because we were exhausted,” Touchette said. “They were able to make some tough shots and come back. Towards the end, though, we stuck with it and we were there battling the whole time.”
In addition to her career-high score, Touchette grabbed three rebounds and made three assists. Splain added 12 points for the Chargers, senior Arianna Sysum had 10 points and eight rebounds, and McDonald hit nine points and three rebounds. Mills chipped in three points and led with 10 rebounds.
Next season, the Chargers will lose key starter Sysum and substitutes Delp and senior Macy Berglund in addition to Touchette.
With Mills and Dani Salenbein returning as seniors and a junior class including Peighton Nelson, Splain, Callahan, Kendall McCormick, McDonald, and Ashley Konkle, Averkamp said that he is optimistic about the future of the program.
“My first year here, we lost 17 games,” Averkamp said. “To win 17 games less than two years later is a pretty great turnaround. I’m excited for everything that this team helped set the groundwork for. That senior group has been with me for all three of the years I’ve been here, and I think they set the tone of where the program is going.”
