Hillsdale 68, Northern Michigan 62

January 26, 2011 – In the second game of a four-game homestand, the Hillsdale College women’s basketball team put forth a strong team effort in defeating Northern Michigan University 68-62 Thursday night at Jesse Philips Arena.

The Chargers are back at .500 for the season, with an overall mark of 9-9 and 5-6 in the GLIAC. The team will host nationally ranked and 2011 national finalist Michigan Tech at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The game was tightly played by two teams who entered the contest tied for eighth overall in the conference standings. NMU held a three-point lead with 1:17 left in the first half, but Hillsdale put an 8-0 spurt on the visitors to turn that deficit into a five-point lead entering halftime. Freshman Abbey Lovat drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key and junior guard Lea Jones followed that up with a three-point play to help swing momentum to Hillsdale’s side. A baked-in jumper near the halftime buzzer by senior guard Chelsea Harrison finished off the run and put Hillsdale up 34-29 at intermission.

The Wildcats briefly regained the lead early in the second half, but another scoring run by Hillsdale gave it the lead for good. NMU inched ahead 37-36 in the first two minutes of the second half. The Chargers came up with another 8-0 run, with points coming from three different players, stretch the lead out to seven. Hillsdale played solid defense from there, and was able to counter any run the Wildcats attempted to make.

Hillsdale’s effectiveness defensively was shown by the Wildcats’ shooting percentages. NMU, a prolific 3-point shooting team, shot just 9-for-34 from beyond the arc (26.5 percent), compared to a 6-for-13 performance by the Chargers. Hillsdale also took care of business from the free throw line, going 22-for-25 as a team, and was led by Harrison’s 10 makes without a miss from the charity stripe.

Jones did a brilliant job of controlling the pace and flow of the game from her point guard position. She played 36 minutes with no turnovers, 19 points, nine rebounds, six assists and three steals. She ran the team’s pick and roll plays to peak efficiency, and made great judgments with when to pull up for a jumper, or when to drive to the basket.

Jones’ no-turnover performance was also a key in the Chargers’ holding a 17-5 scoring edge on the Wildcats in points off turnovers.

Harrison was just as good for the Chargers, leading all scorers with 22 points in the game. Harrison and Jones each made two of their three 3-point shots, and Harrison added five rebounds and four assists to her40-minute game.

Senior forward Elizabeth Brannick helped get the team off to a good start by scoring six of the Chargers’ first nine points, en route to a season-high 12.