THe Hillsdale College women's basketball team put another scare into one of the top teams in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference on Tuesday night.
Once again, however, it wasn't quite enough to come away with a victory in a 72-62 loss to Kentucky Wesleyan at home.
The Chargers played their best game of the season defensively and led for much of the first half, jumping out to a 7-2 lead in the opening minutes and taking a 32-29 lead into halftime over the Panthers, who were picked to finish second in the G-MAC preseason poll.
Despite going six and a half minutes without a field goal to start the third quarter, Hillsdale continued to battle, rallying from a 12-point deficit to start the fourth quarter to cut the Kentucky Wesleyan lead to a single possession multiple times in the final period.
But just like close losses early in the season to Findlay and Malone, the Chargers couldn't string together enough productive offensive possessions to take the lead, and Wesleyan was 7 of 8 from the free throw line in the final five minutes to pull away for the victory.
Hillsdale had great offensive balance in the loss. In her first start, sophomore Arianna Sysum finished with a career-high 14 points and chipped in five rebounds, while guard Grace Touchette scored 14 points and added four rebounds and three assists.
In the best game of her young career, Hillsdale freshman Dani Salenbien was close behind Sysum and Touchette with 13 points, while senior Jaycie Burger just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Sydney Mills chipped in 10 points and eight rebounds to continue a strong start to her second season in a Charger uniform.
Defensively, the Chargers held an opponent below 80 points for the first time this season, but offensively, the Chargers struggled to capitalize, shooting just 32.8 percent from the floor and 25.9 percent from 3-point range in the loss.
Hillsdale (0-4, 0-4 G-MAC) is still looking for its first win of the season. The Chargers will be back in action at 1 p.m. on Saturday when Hillsdale hosts Ursuline (0-3, 0-3 G-MAC) in a battle of two teams looking for their first victory in the 2020-21 season.
Photo by Gwen Buchhop