Sydney Mills has over 1,000 career rebounds. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Senior forward Sydney Mills became the third player in Hillsdale College women’s basketball history to surpass 1,000 rebounds for her career on the way to a 76-63 road victory over Quincy University Nov. 17. 

“Sydney Mills will go down as one of the best players to play here at Hillsdale, and she almost does it effortlessly because she just chooses to show up,” head coach Brianna Brennan said. “She has the best attitude, she has the best effort, she brings energy non-stop.”

With  wins against Lake Superior State University and Roosevelt University, as well as losses to McKendree College and Saginaw Valley State University, Hillsdale will head into conference play 3-4 overall. 

Mills led the team to an offensive victory over Quincy with a 31-point, 15-rebound double-double in a performance that took her to second all-time in career rebounds. 

“I honestly didn’t know when I got it, but after, my team was very celebratory toward me, and it was really awesome to be there with the team and feel that emotion,” Mills said. “Ever since I was little my parents always told me, ‘You may not always be able to score in a game but you can always hustle.’ So that’s where rebounding comes in for me. It’s just a thing that you can always control and always hustle and go get it.”

In addition to her record rebounding, Mills went 5-for-5 from beyond the arc and 10-for-14 from the floor to finish just three points short of her career high in scoring. 

The next day, the Chargers fell 75-66 to McKendree University on the road despite a run in the fourth quarter that cut a 20-point deficit to five with less than a minute to play.

“We came out super stagnant, and so they outscored us 28-12 in that first quarter, and we battled the rest of the way,” Brennan said. “We just didn’t have enough steam to close the gap completely.”

Four Chargers scored in the double digits in the contest, with junior point guard Lauren McDonald leading the team with 17 points and Mills adding another double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. 

McDonald has led scoring in four games this season after taking over as starting point guard for Grace Touchette ’23.

“She’s a player that can literally do it all,” Brennan said. “She can fill any stat column on any given night, and for her to be adjusting to playing that point guard spot but then also to be able to help Syd Mills on the board and pull down some rebounds for us has provided so much.”

The Chargers bounced back to dominate Lake Superior State University 77-53 at home with a strong performance on both ends of the court, outscoring Lake Superior 50-22 in the paint and holding them to 34.4% shooting from the floor. 

“When we played Quincy, we shot the lights out,” Brennan said. “However, we won’t always be able to rely on our 3-point shooting. So then when we look at a game like Lake State where we shot well but not anything crazy, it just shows us that we’re capable of scoring at a high level from the outside but then also pounding it inside and finishing at the rim too.” 

Brennan said the team is hoping to put those two aspects together in a balanced offense headed into the next few games. 

The Chargers pushed past Roosevelt 63-52 on the road before falling 55-45 to Saginaw Valley State at home Nov. 28.

The Chargers will enter conference play this weekend, facing Ohio Dominican University in the Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena Dec. 2. 

“Going into conference play, it’s a lot more focus on scouting reports, making sure we get the plays that are happening, and just continuing to work together,” assistant coach Abbey Bartoszewicz said. “We’re not going to win successfully if one person’s scoring the whole time. We need to spread it around. Most of our wins have come off of when we have four people in double digits or we have some serious defensive plays, shutting down big players.”