A deficit in turnovers and offensive rebounds was too much for the Hillsdale College women's basketball team to overcome against a good Ohio Dominican team Saturday afternoon.
The Chargers fell to the Panthers 82-75 in an entertaining and energetic game at the Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena. The loss drops Hillsdale back to .500 for the season at 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
Ohio Dominican forced 27 Hillsdale turnovers, and early on, held a big edge on the boards which resulted in a 26-8 shot attempt differential in the first quarter. But with things not going its way, Hillsdale found itself down just six, 23-17 after the first 10 minutes. The Chargers would hang close throughout, taking the lead midway through the fourth quarter after a layup by Maddy Reed. But the Panthers responded impressively, retaking the lead for good with five straight points after it was tied up at 73 with 3:15 to go.
The Panthers grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and had 17 fewer turnovers than Hillsdale. That helped lead ODU to taking 80 field goal attempts in the game compared to 56 for the Chargers. That huge difference helped negate Hillsdale's slight edge in field goal shooting, but also a school-record performance on the defensive end of the floor.
The Chargers tied a nine-year-old school record by blocking 15 shots as a team in the game. Five players had 2 or more blocks, led by Makenna Ott's career-high 4. Julia Wacker, Bree Porter and Allie Dittmer each blocked 3 while Brittany Gray swatted 2.
The 15 blocks tied a record set back on Dec. 13, 2008 at Ferris State. But that record was obtained by that Hillsdale team very differently, as former All-American Katie Cezat had 13 blocked shots by herself in that contest.
Thet mark of 15 blocked shots also sets a single-game G-MAC record, breaking the old record of 13 set by Trevecca Nazarene back on Nov. 30, 2012.
Ott led the Chargers with 18 points, going 7-for-12 from the floor to go along with 5 rebounds and 4 blocks. Junior Allie Dewire and Dittmer each scored 14, with Gray's 10 rebounds leading the team.