The Hillsdale College women's basketball team battled visiting Wayne State to a standstill through three quarters, but couldn't keep pace late as the Warriors pulled away for an 80-67 final on Wednesday evening.

Wayne State scored 29 fourth quarter points, 11 of them at the free throw line, as foul trouble mounted for the Chargers in the final period and the Warriors pulled away.

Hillsdale entered the fourth quarter tied at 51-all with Wayne State after three solid defensive periods. The Chargers rallied from an early seven point deficit in the first quarter, taking their first lead on a putback by Lauren McDonald with 3:40 to play in the second quarter. The Chargers held a 32-31 edge at halftime and continued to hang tough in a back-and-forth third quarter, but ran out of gas late.

Free throws were an important factor in the outcome, as Wayne State got in the bonus early in both the third and fourth quarters and pressed their advantage. The Warriors finished the game 21 of 26 from the line to Hillsdale 8 of 10 performance from the charity stripe, with that point differential matching the lead Wayne State finished the game with. Wayne State also scored 20 points off 18 Hillsdale turnovers.

The Chargers were able to finish with a 33-29 edge in rebounding despite giving up significant size to the Warriors. Savannah Smith led Hillsdale with 15 points, four rebounds and two blocks, while senior Kendall McCormick just missed her first career double-double with 14 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Lauren McDonald chipped in 13 points, five assists and four rebounds as well for Hillsdale, and Annalise Pietrzyk added 11 points and three rebounds as well.

Sydney Pnacek finished with six points and three rebounds off the bench for Hillsdale, which falls to 2-3 overall with the loss. The Chargers are in action again on Saturday, traveling to Lewis for a road contest against the defending GLVC champions, set to tip off at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

Photo by Elaine Kutas