January 3, 2008 - As the only senior on the Hillsdale College women's basketball team, forward Julie Slot is asked to carry plenty of leadership responsibilities on the team. Thursday night, she added scoring responsibilities just fine.

Slot caught fire vs. the Eagles, scoring a career-high 32 points to lead Hillsdale to an 81-66 victory on the road vs. Ashland at the Kates Gymnasium. The victory improves Hillsdale to 10-2 overall and 3-1 in the GLIAC. Hillsdale stays tied for first place in the GLIAC South Division with the win.

Slot also hit a new career-best with six 3-point field goals in the game, a mark one below the single-game school record. Slot's 32 points are a team-high by one player this season. She was 6-for-8 from downtown, and hit 10-of-18 shots from the field overall.

The game didn't start well for the Chargers, who quickly fell behind the Eagles 7-0. But Hillsdale stormed back, outscoring Ashland 35-21 for the remainder of the first half to carry a seven-point lead into intermission.

Led by Slot's shooting and an off-the-charts rebounding effort from junior Katie Cezat, the Chargers extended the lead to 60-43 with around nine minutes left. Ashland battled back to cut the deficit to six, 65-59, just four minutes later. The 17-2 Eagles' run put a Hillsdale win in jeopardy.

Then Hillsdale replied with a 10-1 run of its own, sparked by free throws from Slot and a timely 3-pointer by sophomore Brooke Knight.

The Chargers shot a red-hot 10-for-18 from 3-point land and hit 56 percent of their shots from the field overall. Junior Claire Aubrey scored a career-high 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the floor. Knight scored nine points in the game. Knight and Aubrey combined to score 17 of their 23 total points in the second half.

Cezat had a brilliant game in the team's first game of the new calendar year, finishing with 17 points and a career-high 21 rebounds. The 21 boards ties a school record, which Cezat now shares with Michele Smith, who had 21 rebounds on Feb. 2, 1984. She came into the game ranked in the top six in the GLIAC in six different categories, including scoring and rebounding, and helped those numbers in every way in Hillsdale's victory.

The Chargers helped themselves by making 11 of their 12 free throws, and held Ashland to 36 percent field goal shooting for the game. Hillsdale has now swept the season series from Ashland for the second year in a row after going three years without a victory vs. the Eagles.

Hillsdale is back in action at 1 p.m. Saturday vs. the University of Findlay at the Croy Gymnasium. To view the box score from Thursday's game, click on the link below.

Box score