Two Hillsdale College women's basketball stars earned repeat honors from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference as the G-MAC announced its end of season awards for women's basketball on Friday afternoon.
For the second-straight season, senior guard Grace Touchette was one of 10 players in the G-MAC to earn first team All-Conference honors, while senior forward Sydney Mills was one of 10 players to make the All-G-MAC second team, her third consecutive season earning the honor.
Touchette's repeat first-team honor comes after a season where the fifth-year senior etched her name into the Chargers record books, while leading the Chargers to their best record and first postseasn appearance since the 2018-19 season. The senior led the Chargers in scoring (14.7 points per game) and assists (2.9) while scoring in double figures in 23 contests. She set a career high in points in a single game with 31 in a season-opening 98-90 overtime win over Truman State, then surpassed that mark with 33 points in the final game of her career in the G-MAC Tournament at Kentucky Wesleyan, scoring 33 points and hitting the shot to force overtime as time expired in a 74-73 loss to the Panthers. She finished the 2022-23 season 10th in the G-MAC in points and assists per game, ninth in field goal percentage (.456), and eighth in free throw percentage (.809).
For her career, Touchette is the program's all-time leader in games played, and ranks in the top 10 all-time for the Chargers in several categories, including career points (fifth, 1,666), career assists (fourth, 372), career field goals made (fifth, 592) and career 3-pointers made (third, 223). Her tenacity and productivity helped define the program as Hillsdale built back up from back-to-back single-digit win seasons in her first two years as a starter to a winning record and G-MAC Tournament appearance in her final season.
Mills, meanwhile, becomes just the fifth player in Chargers women's basketball history to earn All-Conference honors in three consecutive seasons with her third-straight All-G-MAC second-team nod. One of the best rebounders the program has ever seen despite being just 5-foot-11, the senior had another productive campaign for Hillsdale in 2022-23, averaging 10.8 points and 10 rebounds per game to average a double-double for an unprecedented third consecutive season at Hillsdale. Mills also led the Chargers in blocks per game (0.8) while posting 10 double-doubles, leading the G-MAC in rebounds per game this season for the third straight year and also finishing tied for fourth in blocks per game.
The senior's 299 rebounds in the 2022-23 season are the sixth-most in a single season in program history, and, like Touchette, Mills also ranks highly in several career categories at Hillsdale, including 15th in career points with 1,138 after reaching 1,000 this season, third in career rebounds with 981, seventh in blocked shots with 66, and 10th in 3-pointers made with 152.
While the Chargers will miss Touchette, whose eligibility has expired and who will graduate this spring with a degree in Economics, Mills will return for a fifth year in the fall for the Chargers to form the core of what should be another strong squad that should contend for both G-MAC and NCAA Tournament berths in 2023-24.