March 2, 2013 - The 2012-13 season came to a close for the Hillsdale College women's basketball team Saturday afternoon, in a 73-61 loss at 19th-ranked University of Findlay.
Hillsdale's season ends with an overall record of 11-14. The Chargers will not qualify for the GLIAC tournament, the first time that's happened since the 2003-04 season. Findlay moves on as the number two seed in the forthcoming conference tournament, and has a 22-4 record.
A hurricane named Kayla Brown hit Findlay's Croy Gymnasium in the first half of Saturday's matchup. Brown, who was honored on senior day at halftime of the men's game, made 10 of her first 13 shots from the floor - six of them 3-pointers - and scored an incredible 29 points in the first half to help spring the Oilers to a 19-point halftime lead. Brown finished with 35 points, the most compiled by an opposing player against the Chargers dating back to at least 2005-06.
But to its credit, Hillsdale did not roll over and made the nationally ranked home team sweat it out to get the victory. Led by sophomore center Megan Fogt, the Chargers battled back and cut what had been a 21-point lead down to as few as six points on a few occasions in the second half. But Findlay closed out the game making eight of its final 10 free throws, while forcing misses at the other end, to wrap up the win.
Fogt enjoyed one of the best seasons ever recorded by a post player in recent Charger women's basketball history, and she wrapped up her second season in fine fashion. She scored 22 points, had nine rebounds and blocked two shots. The 22 were her second-most scored in a GLIAC game this season, and she fell just one rebound shy of her 14th double-double of the season.
Her two blocked shots gave her 35 for the season, ranking her number three on the school's all-time single-season blocked shots list. Only former national player of the year Katie Cezat blocked more shots in a season than Fogt did this year.
Junior forward Angela Bisaro (pictured) was the only other Charger to crack double figures, scoring 10 to go along with six rebounds.