On Saturday March 8, the Ashland Women’s Basketball team took on the Hillsdale Chargers to defend their Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) title and look for their fourth straight league championship.
Kate’s Gymnasium was packed and loud on Saturday as tipoff began. Hillsdale quickly quieted the hometown crowd though, as they hit back-to-back threes to start the game and jumped to an 8-0 lead within the first two minutes. Ashland was able to get back in the game with six unanswered points of their own to cut the lead to two. The Eagles held the lead by five, 17-12 with 2:25 left in the first, but Hillsdale had four straight points to end the quarter and only trailed by one.
The Chargers were once again able to start off well at the beginning of the quarter and went on a 10-0 run which put them up 26-17 less than two minutes into the period. Hillsdale was able to keep their distance with Ashland, not letting them within five points of their lead for the rest of the half. The Eagles found themselves down by ten on their last possession of the second quarter when senior forward, Zoe Miller, hit a huge momentum-shifting three right before halftime to cut the deficit to 34-27.
Right out of the gates, Ashland was the team to start the quarter well as they shifted the energy in the gym to their side on a 10-2 run which put them in the lead by one. The rest of the quarter was an offensive battle that had multiple switched leads and ties. The Eagles outscored Hillsdale by eight in the third quarter as they headed to the fourth with a 49-48 lead.
With 2:58 left to play in the game, Ashland held a 59-57 lead and Hillsdale could feel that they had a chance to steal the G-MAC title with a solid ending to this game. But the Eagles put on a clinic defensively by shutting down the chargers on a 10-0 run. The clock hit double zero, and the Eagles were G-MAC champions once more in a 69-57 victory.
Freshman guard, Ashley Mullet, was able to access her clutch gene by hitting six free throws in the final minute of the game, on her way to a 16-point performance. Senior forward, Sarah Mckee, was able to dominate under the hoop going a perfect 6-6 from the field with 14 points.
The Eagles now have an overall record of 30-3 and look ahead to the NCAA tournament where, Sunday night, they will learn who they will play in the quarterfinal on Thursday, March 14.
