Last week was already special for Sydney Mills – and now it's earned her additional recognition by the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
The senior on the Hillsdale College women's basketball team hit a major career milestone on Thursday against Ursuline, becoming the 20th player in Chargers women's basketball history to surpass 1,000 career points in Hillsdale's victory over the Arrows.
On Monday afternoon, the G-MAC Office announced that for that achievement, and her overall play this past weekend, Mills has been named the conference's Women's Basketball Player of the Week for Jan. 9-16. It's the second time in her career she's received a weekly conference honor, and the first weekly conference honor of the season for the Chargers women's basketball program.
Mills finished the victory over Ursuline with a 14 point, 12 rebound double-double, her seventh of the season for the Chargers, and also played a big role in Hillsdale's 78-57 win over Ohio Dominican on Saturday, with eight points and a team-leading seven rebounds, as well as two blocked shots. She added six made 3-pointers over the weekend, on 46.1% shooting from beyond the arc.
The senior from DeWitt, Michigan is averaging 10.9 points per game and 10.4 rebounds per game after averaging a double-double and earning second-team All-G-MAC honors in each of the past two seasons. Her rebounds per game not only leads the G-MAC but ranks 15th nationally at the NCAA DII level for the 2022-23 season.
Mills also is approaching another big milestone for her career in terms of rebounds – at 869 total through four seasons, Mills is closing in rapidly on becoming just the third Charger in program history to surpass 1,000 rebounds for her career. With another year of eligibility past this one due to Covid-19, Mills has a strong chance of overtaking Sandy Skaisgir ('91) to become the program's all-time leading rebounder in 2023-24 if she stays healthy.
The Chargers and Mills have won eight of their last nine contests and look to keep the momentum going heading into a big road week, with contests on Jan. 19 against current G-MAC second place Kentucky Wesleyan, and on the 21st against current G-MAC third place Trevecca Nazarene.
Photo by Charles Miller