Hillsdale's women's basketball team earned a second-place finish in the G-MAC regular season standings on Saturday the same way it had all season.

When the clock gets short and the lights shine brightest, that's when the Chargers are at their best.

Hillsdale outplayed host Malone down the stretch to take a runner-up finish in the G-MAC outright and ruin the Pioneers' Senior Day with a 68-61 victory, in the process moving to 19-9 and clinching their best regular season finish since the 2008-09 season.

The Chargers came out of the gate firing and hungry, blitzing the Pioneers early and taking a 20-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. Foul trouble began to hit the Chargers in the post, however, and Malone surged back, outscoring Hillsdale 16-6 in the second quarter to tie up the game at halftime. 

The Pioneers remained red-hot coming out of halftime, surging to a 42-32 lead with 3:59 in the third quarter and threatening to pull away. Instead of panicking, Hillsdale showed its poise and clawed its way back into the game, erasing the deficit with a 13-0 run that included 3-pointers by Lauren McDonald, Annalise Pietrzyk and Caitlin Splain to retake the lead head into the fourth quarter.

The final period was a tense back-and-forth battle, and Malone took a 56-53 lead with four minutes to play. Hillsdale responded with an Ellie Bruce layup to cut the Pioneers' lead to one, and a block in the paint by Sarah Aleknavicius at the other end allowed McDonald to give Hillsdale the lead back with a pull-up jumper, 57-56, with 3:21 to play.

After another defensive stop by the Chargers, Hillsdale landed a devastating blow on the ensuing possession, as junior Emma Ruhlman buried a 3-pointer with 2:34 to play that gave Hillsdale a 60-56 lead. That put Hillsdale in control, and the Chargers moved to put the game away, forcing a turnover and getting another jumper from McDonald that gave Hillsdale a six-point lead with under two minutes to play.

Malone did its best to try and get back in the game, but Hillsdale was near-flawless down the stretch, as McDonald went 4-for-4 at the line and Splain stripped the ball for a coast-to-coast layup to add to the cushion and finish off the victory.

Many players contributed to Hillsdale's victory, but in a storied career at Hillsdale this one may go down as McDonald's finest game. In a showdown with fellow G-MAC Player of the Year candidate Erin Kaufman of Malone, McDonald was clearly the best player on the floor, torching the Pioneers for a career-high 30 points and adding 10 rebounds for a double-double. Malone had no answer for her throughout the contest.

Splain chipped in 11 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals and came up big for the Chargers late, as did Ruhlman, who added 10 points and two steals as well. Kendall McCormick finished with six points and six rebounds as well for the Chargers, Marilyn Popplewell chipped in four points and six rebounds, and Bruce added four points and four rebounds.

Hillsdale outrebounded the much taller Pioneers 39-33, scoring 12 second-chance points, and committed just nine turnovers in the contest while scoring 17 points off Malone turnovers in the victory.

The Chargers finish the regular season 16-4 in G-MAC play, and will be the second seed in the upcoming G-MAC Tournament next week. Hillsdale will host seventh-seeded Cedarville on Tuesday in its first home playoff game since 2009, at a time to be announced.