The Hillsdale College women's basketball team outscored host Trevecca Nazarene 32-28 in the second half of Thursday's road contest in Nashville, Tennessee, but it wasn't enough to dig out of a massive halftime deficit as the Chargers fell 71-49 to the Trojans.
The Chargers trailed by 26 points at the half but came out of the break on fire, opening the quarter with a 10-1 run that allowed Hillsdale to cut Trevecca's lead by eight by the end of the third quarter. Junior Lauren McDonald and redshirt freshman Sydney Pnacek each knocked down a 3-pointer and contributed five points during the stretch, which helped propel Hillsdale to play the Trojans more or less evenly the rest of the way to the final whistle.
While Hillsdale won the second half, its play just couldn't overcome a difficult first half that saw the Trojans jump out to a 20-6 first quarter lead, then stretching that advantage even further with a 23-11 edge in the second quarter. The Chargers never got going offensively, shooting just 25.8% from the floor and 25.9% from 3-point range in the loss.
McDonald led Hillsdale with 13 points, 10 rebounds and four assists on the night to finish with her second-straight double-double and her third of the season overall, while fellow junior Kendall McCormick chipped in 13 points and five rebounds as well.
Pnacek chipped in eight points and four rebounds for the Chargers, while senior Dani Hohlbein added six points and two rebounds off the bench for Hillsdale.
The Chargers are now 6-8 overall, 2-4 in the G-MAC and continue their road trip on Saturday with a 1 p.m. tip-off in Kentucky against league newcomer Thomas More.
Photo by Reva Ludwig