The Hillsdale College women's basketball team overcame multiple dire predicaments to pick up a critical road victory in G-MAC play on Thursday, outlasting host Ohio Dominican for a 64-63 win.
Trailing 63-62 with under 20 seconds to play in overtime, junior Lauren McDonald crossed over a defender and sent her sprawling to the floor, opening up the lane and giving McDonald the separation she needed to bury a floater in the paint and give Hillsdale the lead with 7 seconds to go. ODU's attempted answer at the other end came up short of the rim, and senior Sydney Mills secured the rebound and ran out the clock for the Chargers.
Hillsdale needed a furious finish to regulation to force the overtime period, as the Chargers trailed 54-48 with 2:31 to play. On the ensuing Hillsdale possession, McDonald split a pair of free throws to cut the lead to five. Hillsdale put on a full-court press in desperation to try and get back in the game, and it paid immediate dividends, as Hillsdale forced back-to-back ODU turnovers in the back-court that led to two layups and cut the deficit to 54-53.
ODU split a pair of free throws to go back up 55-53 with under a minute to play, opening the door for Hillsdale to get a chance to tie the game. Mills delivered with a put-back layup that made it 55-all, and neither team could get a potential game winner to go in the last 40 seconds of the contest to head to overtime.
The OT period was a back-and-forth affair, with significant momentum swings. Mills hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 2:03 to play to give Hillsdale a 62-59 lead, but ODU countered with four points on the next two possessions to retake the lead. That left the Chargers with one opportunity to win the game, and McDonald delivered the game-winning shot the Chargers had been waiting nearly 45 minutes for.
Hillsdale's two best players this season had huge games on the road to help the Chargers pull out the victory. McDonald poured in 20 points and added five rebounds, three assists and three steals, while Mills put up an impressive 15 point, 17 rebound double-double. Those 17 rebounds put Mills at 1,145 for her career, one shy of the Hillsdale College record set by Sandy Skaisgir in 1991, and make her extremely likely to move into first place on Saturday at Findlay.
Ashley Konkle added eight points and six rebounds for the Chargers, Caitlin Splain chipped in seven points, four rebounds and three steals, and Savannah Smith added six points and four rebounds. Hillsdale struggled with turnovers, 21 total on the night, but overcame them with a huge advantage in the paint, outrebounding ODU 44-31, outscoring the Panthers 48-26 on points in the paint, and turning 18 offensive rebounds into 21 second-chance points to escape Columbus with a crucial league victory.
With the win the Chargers are now 11-6 in G-MAC play, 15-10 overall, and have clinched the program's best conference record since 2018-19. Hillsdale is now tied for fifth place in the G-MAC with Malone, and have an opportunity to clinch a G-MAC Tournament berth on the road on Saturday with a victory over host Findlay.
Photo by Reva Ludwig