Chargers finish non-conference play 3-3

By Moira Gleason Collegian Freelancer

The Hillsdale women’s basketball team defeated the Purdue University Northwest Pride at home on Nov. 18, then lost two games on the road to finish non-conference play 3-3.

Sophomore guard Caitlin Splain put up 19 points for the Chargers, and senior forward Sydney Mills made a last second floater layup for a 61-59 victory against Purdue Northwest. The following week, Hillsdale fell short on the road, scoring 85-80 against the Lake Superior State University Lakers and 73-61 against the Davenport University Panthers.

In their home game against Purdue Northwest, the Chargers were down

55-59 with under 2:10 to play. Splain stepped up and made a four-point play, sinking a three-point shot and drawing a shooting foul. She scored from the charity stripe to tie the game up 5959 with 2:02 minutes on the clock. The Chargers played strong defense, holding the Pride scoreless for the next two minutes. With less than one second on the clock, Mills secured the win for the Chargers.

“Sydney is someone who every single game is going to give her all,” head coach Charlie Averkamp said. “She went and got a pass and had the confidence to make a shot. But you don’t gain the confidence to make game winning shots in the game. That happens in the summers and when she’s on her own working. I obviously couldn’t be more proud of her with that.”

Though Mills made the winning shot, the win against Purdue Northwest was team effort, and each player fought hard for the victory.

“Purdue Northwest is a very scrappy, defensive team,” Mills said. “Pretty quick, we knew it was going to be hard to play against them because they fight really hard and if we gave them any room to slide in they’d be able to get a lead on us, and we’d have to fight back. I thought that we played really tough in that game, stopping their leading scorers and being disciplined which put us in a spot at the end to win it. It was very frantic there at the end, but we were able to pull it off.”

Her game-winning layup was the only shot that

Mills made against Purdue Northwest, but she led the team with 10 rebounds, her fourth double-digit rebound game in four games. Caitlin Splain led the team in points, scoring 19 points off the bench. Junior Ashley Konkle put up eight points for the Chargers, senior Grace Touchette scored 11, and senior Ariana Sysum added three points. Reserves Carly Callahan and Dani Salenbien both scored six points. The two games on the road were a different story for the Chargers. The Chargers overcame a half-time deficit of nine points. With four minutes to play, the Chargers held a 78-72 lead against Lake Superior State. The Lakers were able to outscore them 13-2 in the final four minutes to finish the game 85-80.

Mills played a strong offensive game against the Lakers, recording her fourth double-double of the season with 27 points and 15 rebounds. Konkle also finished in double digits with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Touchette had an impressive performance with 14 points and seven assists.

The Chargers fought hard in their matchup against Davenport on Nov. 27, but couldn’t overcome a half time deficit of 34-26. Hillsdale had a rough offensive game, shooting 36.4% from the floor with only three offensive rebounds. Touchette and Callahan both scored 13 points for the Chargers.

Peighton Nelson added 11 points, Mills had nine points and four rebounds, and Splain contributed eight points.

The Chargers look to learn from their games on the road and start strong as they head into conference play this weekend with an away game against Cedarville at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday and a home against Trevecca Nazarene at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“There’s a lot of positives that we can take from both games that we’re going to keep learning from this week,” assistant coach Brianna Brennan said. “But the losses help us focus in and fine tune some things that we need to moving into conference this week. The losses force us to reflect and see what’s hurting us so we’re able to hone in on those things and get better. We’re excited to start conference play with a clean slate and see what we can do.”