Saturday's regular-season finale against Ursuline had plenty of playoff implications for the Hillsdale College women's basketball team.
The Chargers played with the intensity you'd expect in a meaningful game, blitzing a desperate visiting Ursuline team from the opening tip in a comprehensive 85-56 victory at home.
With the win, the Chargers moved up into a three way tie for fourth place in the standings, Hillsdale's best-ever regular season finish since joining the G-MAC in the fall of 2017, and will enter next week's G-MAC Tournament as the fifth seed.
Against an opponent that needed a victory to have any chance of making the G-MAC Tourney, Hillsdale came out firing to put the game away early. The Charger shot 69.% from the floor and 66% from 3-point range in the first quarter to build a double-digit lead, then continued to pour it on offensively in the second quarter, finishing the half with 51 points and nine made 3-pointers to take a 51-23 lead into halftime.
With nothing to lose, Ursuline came after Hillsdale with everything they had coming out of the break, closing to within 19 points with four minutes to play in the third quarter. But despite the big push by the Arrows, Hillsdale still had a massive lead, and 3-pointers by Caitlin Splain and Lauren McDonald pushed the lead back to 25 and ended any hope of a comeback.
The end result was one of Hillsdale's most efficient offensive games of the season, as the Chargers shot 56.7% from the field and made 12 3-pointers on 50% shooting from beyond the arc. Five different players finished in double figures for Hillsdale, led by senior Sydney Mills, who was 3 for 4 from beyond the arc and finished the final home game of her Chargers career with 18 points and nine rebounds.
Freshman Savannah Smith also had a huge game off the bench for Hillsdale, knocking down three 3-pointers of her own to tie Mills for the scoring lead with a career-high 18 points. Junior Lauren McDonald added 14 points, three assists and four steals, spearheading a ferocious Chargers defense, while Ashley Konkle chipped in 10 points and five rebounds and Caitlin Splain added 10 points and four assists.
Annalise Pietrzyk contributed seven points and four assists as well for Hillsdale, which held Ursuline to just 36.2 shooting from the floor and a 3 of 14 performance from 3-point range in another excellent defensive performance.
With the win, Hillsdale finishes the regular season 17-11 overall and 13-7 in the G-MAC, authoring the Chargers' highest finish in the standings in a conference race since Hillsdale tied for the GLIAC regular season title in the 2008-09 season. The Chargers will be the fifth seed in the G-MAC Tournament and will travel to fourth-seeded Thomas More on Tuesday with the game time still to be determined.
Photo by Reva Ludwig