Cardinals Unable To Pull Off Upset Against Hillsdale

By Anthony Fontana

Any hopes SVSU’s women’s basketball team had of upsetting undefeated Hillsdale disappeared fairly early into the game as the Chargers got off to an early lead before running away with a 74-38 victory. 

The Cards were never able to get into any sort of rhythm offensively as they turned the ball over early and often. In the first half alone, they had 15 turnovers and finished the game with 24 total. 

The offense struggled to get anything going as it took a little over four minutes for the Cards to score their first points. SVSU opened the second half with a nearly five-minute offensive drought. They trailed 33-11 at halftime and by the time they got on the scoreboard in the second half, Hillsdale was up 50-12.

Defensively, the Cards had no answer for the Chargers three point shooting. In the first half, Hillsdale went four-for-six from beyond the arc. For the game, they made nine of their 15 three-point field goals while the Cards only managed to knock down two of their 13. 

A big reason that the Chargers were able to dominate the way they did was the rebounding differential. At halftime, the Chargers had out-rebounded the Cards by a 26-11 margin. For the game, they took down 14 more rebounds than the Cards did, with a decisive 45-31 advantage. When Hillsdale wasn’t knocking down three-pointers, they were converting second-chance points thanks to their ability to get offensive rebounds. The rebounds led to a lot of easy points in the paint.

The Cardinals had only three players score in the first half. Senior guard Tricia Everett led the Cards in the first half with five points on two for five shooting from the floor. Sophomore guard Kelley Wesp led all Cardinal scorers with 10 points. Sophomore forward Brittany Burkhardt finished the game with nine points and six rebounds. 

Hillsdale junior guard Janay Miller came off the bench to score 21 points. She hit three-pointers on three consecutive possessions in the first half to start what turned out to be a 40-4 Charger run. For the game, she hit all five of the three pointers she attempted and finished with a career high in points in only 22 minutes. 

Hillsdale came into the game undefeated with a 5-0 overall record to go along with a 1-0 GLIAC record. SVSU was 1-4 overall and 0-1 in the GLIAC, still looking for their first conference victory. The Chargers proved that SVSU still has a way to go under first year head coach Shannon Baugh if they want to be as successful as them. 

While the Cards struggled on both the offensive and defensive sides of the floor, poor defense is something that has plagued the Cards in the early season. The 74 points is the second fewest points allowed in a game this season for the Cards. The 38 points the Cards scored was the second fewest points that they have scored all season. 

The Cards look to get on the winning track Dec. 14 when they welcome Lake Superior State to town. Tip off is scheduled for 1 p.m.