The Hillsdale College women's basketball team continued a red-hot recent stream with another strong performance on the road on Saturday, taking down host Lake Erie 69-52.
The Chargers overcame an early deficit and never trailed after the first quarter, taking an eight point lead into halftime and outscoring Lake Erie 18-9 in the third quarter to turn an eight point lead into a 17-point advantage and all but put the game away. A late scoring surge by Lake Erie against Hillsdale's bench in the fourth quarter couldn't close the gap any, as Hillsdale matched the Storm blow for blow in the final quarter to cruise to a comfortable win.
Sydney Mills played a key role in the victory for the Chargers, following up her game-winning layup on Thursday against Walsh with a monster contest against Lake Erie, finishing with 26 points on 11 of 20 shooting from the floor, nine rebounds and three steals. Hillsdale's other Sydney, redshirt freshman Sydney Pnacek, also had a solid game off the bench, contributing 11 points and three rebounds, and sophomore Sydney Ruhlman knocked down two 3-pointers and finished with a career-high 10 points in 18 minutes of action.
Ashley Konkle added five points and seven rebounds for Hillsdale, while Kendall McCormick was impressive as a distributor for the Chargers, finishing with a career-high nine assists in the victory.
The Chargers shared the ball impressively in the victory, assisting on 20 of their 24 made baskets, and also won the rebounding battle 46-35 over the Storm, finishing with 30 points in the paint and 13 second-chance points. Hillsdale also punished Lake Erie's 15 turnovers, turning them into 24 points at the other end, and was excellent on defense throughout Saturday's contest, holding the Storm to 32.7% shooting from the floor and just a 3 for 22 mark from 3-point range.
Hillsdale has now won four games in a row and seven of their last eight, including five straight on the road, to improve to 13-9 overall, and 9-5 in G-MAC play. The Chargers return home after a four-game road swing for two important contests next week, starting with a Thursday night contest against Cedarville beginning at 5:30 p.m. Hillsdale is currently seventh, but just two games back from second place with three weeks remaining in the season, and can move a step closer to locking up a G-MAC Tournament berth with a win over the Yellow Jackets.
Photo by Reva Ludwig