An elusive first win of the season was in reach for the Hillsdale College women's basketball team on Thursday.
The Chargers trailed visiting Ursuline 80-78 with 1:07 to go and had the ball with the chance to tie or take the lead, but Hillsdale couldn't find the go-ahead score, and the Arrows were 5-of-6 from the line in the final minute to hand the Chargers an 85-80 loss on New Year's Eve.
Hillsdale was competitive early, leading for almost the entire first quarter and trailing by just three points at halftime. Senior Jaycie Burger was huge early on for the Chargers, shooting 4 of 6 from 3-point range and finishing with 14 first-half points.
Ursuline seized control in the third quarter, holding Hillsdale scoreless for the first two minutes and 54 seconds of the half and leading by as many as 12 points.
It looked like the Arrows might run away with the game, but junior Grace Touchette took charge for Hillsdale in the fourth quarter and willed the Chargers back into the contest. Touchette scored 13 of her team-high 22 points in the period to help Hillsdale get back within a basket of the lead with under a minute to play, and added five rebounds and two assists on the night.
Burger finished with 17 points and seven rebounds in a strong performance, and Sydney Mills chipped in six points and a game-high 11 rebounds as well.
Maverick Delp scored a career-high nine points to gve the Chargers a lift off the bench, and Arianna Sysum and Lauren Daffenberg each added eight points as well for a balanced Charger offensive attack.
Hillsdale had a great night shooting the ball, hitting 56.6 percent of their shots from the floor and 52.4 percent from deep, but committed 21 turnovers to Ursuline's 12 and sent the Arrows to the line 24 times. That gave Ursuline the edge it needed to hold off the Chargers' late rally.
Hillsdale falls to 0-5 on the season, and 0-5 in G-MAC play, but the Chargers have been within a possession of the lead late in the fourth quarter in four of their five losses. They'll get another chance to get in the win column on Monday, when they travel to Painesville, OH to take on a Lake Erie team that took a 112-63 loss to Malone in their first game of the season on Thursday afternoon.
Photo by Gwen Buchhop