Senior Sydney Mills scored 26 points against Lake Erie. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department
Senior Sydney Mills hit a buzzer-beater layup against Walsh University to secure a 51-49 road victory for the Hillsdale women’s basketball team Feb. 8. Two days later, the Chargers overpowered Lake Erie University for a 69-52 road win.
“It was tight, but a win is a win, especially on the road, especially in February,” head coach Brianna Brennan said about the Walsh game.
The two wins brought Hillsdale to 13-9 overall and 9-5 in the G-MAC, moving them up to the seventh spot in the G-MAC rankings.
When Hillsdale got the ball with 12 seconds to go in a 49-49 contest against Walsh, junior Lauren McDonald got the ball to junior Kendall McCormick.
McCormick made a drive to the rim.
“Lauren made a great read out of it, found me, and I was able to drive to the basket and sydney was in the perfect spot for the dump down pass,” McCormick said.
Blocked by Mills’ defender, McCormick found Mills in the lane for a bounce pass just in time, and Mills put the ball up as the clock ran out.
“Everyone was pretty excited,” Brennan said. “Coach Abbey was trying to hold the bench back from going out on the court.”
The Chargers led for the majority of the contest but struggled to gain a definite advantage, shooting only 35.6% from the floor and 13.6% from beyond the arc.
“We got some good looks, and we were running our offense well,” Brennan said. “The ball just wasn’t falling for us.”
The Chargers largest lead in the fourth quarter was eight points thanks to an initial 10-2 run in the first five minutes, but Walsh came back and answered basket for basket, tying the game in the final seconds leading up to Mills’ finishing play.
“The momentum was with us,” Mills said. “I thought we did a really good job of staying calm throughout the whole entire game leading up to the last few moments.”
Brennan said the team struggled on the defensive end, but it still held the Cavaliers to 32.3% from the floor and 5-for-27 in 3-point shooting.
“We were not the defensive team we’ve been all year, and it was very, very evident,” Brennan said. “Usually our defense fuels our offense, and usually we’re pretty locked in, and we just have a lot of success on the defensive end making other teams feel uncomfortable. And we did not do that.”
Mills led Hillsdale with 16 points, eight rebounds, and three assists in the contest. Junior Lauren McDonald also contributed with six points, two rebounds, and two assists, and redshirt freshman Sydney Pnacek had nine points and seven rebounds.
The Chargers established an eight-point halftime lead after trailing early on Saturday. Hillsdale then outscored Lake Erie 18-9 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. Walsh made a push late but couldn’t overcome the deficit in time.
Brennan said the team offense was more chaotic than usual against Lake Erie, but the team was still able to share the ball.
“They were still finding the hot hand and hitting the open person, which is huge,” Brennan said. “That’s how you play team basketball.”
With 10 players adding points in the contest, Mills followed up her buzzer-beater performance with 26 points, nine rebounds, and three steals.
McCormick had a game high nine assists in the contest. Pnacek added another 11 points and three rebounds off the bench, and sophomore Emma Ruhlman had two 3-pointers in a career-high 10-point game.
Hillsdale will be at home this week, facing Cedarville University Feb. 15 and reigning G-MAC champion Ashland University Feb. 17.
“To prepare for Cedarville and Ashland we are really focusing on defense,” McCormick said. “We haven’t had our best defensive games the past couple of times, so that is the main focus. We are so excited for Ashland Saturday especially because it’s senior day.”
Brennan says the team is confident going up against the Ashland Eagles, who have a 13-game win streak.
“We’ve broken the Kentucky Wesleyan streak, we’ve broken the Walsh streak,” Brennan said. “Our mindset is let’s get this third streak here.”
