HILLSDALE, Mich. – A see-saw affair was the trend over the first 25 minutes of action Thursday evening, but Ohio Dominican's women's basketball team came up on the wrong side of the defensive battle as Hillsdale made the final surge to take a 71-59 home win.

With their second win in five games, the Chargers complete the season sweep and improve to 14-7 overall and 8-7 in the GLIAC, while the Panthers fall to 5-16 and 3-12 after dropping their third straight.

Senior Melissa Hersey (West Chester, OH) entered the game three assists shy of the 17 year-old ODU career assists mark held by Lisa Janusz (1989-93) and wasted little time taking over first place as she assisted on the Panthers' first three field goals, all three-pointers, to give her 461 for her career as ODU took an early 9-6 lead 6:54 into the game.

With 8:59 to play until intermission, Chelsea Harrison lined up a triple to give Hillsdale a 17-12 advantage, but back-to-back baskets by Christina Pentaudi (Fr./Dayton, OH) sparked a 11-4 run that saw ODU reclaim the lead at 23-21 with 2:37 on the clock. After five different Panthers helped ODU to 5-of-10 shooting from behind the arc, the Panthers clanked on their last five three-point attempts, allowing the Chargers to rally with an 8-0 spurt over the final two and half minutes and take a 29-23 halftime lead.

Hillsdale continued the run with the first basket in the second half to extend the lead to eight, but a 12-2 run, led by Hersey with five points and Meredith Fox (Jr./Springboro, OH) with four, gave ODU back the lead, 35-33, at the 15:03 mark. However, that would be the last lead for the Panthers as the Chargers put together an 11-1 run and a 7-0 run to grab a 54-41 lead. Hillsdale stretched the lead to the largest of the evening, 62-45, with 5:38 left to play after outscoring ODU 29-10 over the previous 9:25.

Back-to-back triples from Tracy Snider (Jr./Lancaster, OH) helped spark a 14-4 ODU rally as the Panthers got within 66-59 at the 1:33 mark, but the Chargers hung on with a layup and three free throws in the final 46 second to nail down the victory.

ODU outshot Hillsdale 38.2 percent (21-of-55) to 36.2 percent (21-of-58), but the Chargers finished with a decisive 49-28 advantage on rebounding, including 18-6 on the offensive glass, leading to 12 second chance points.

Fox led the Panthers with a season-high 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting, while Snider reached double figures off the bench for the fourth time in five games. Hersey finished with a game-high seven assists to give her 465 for her career and matched her season-high with 10 points.

Hillsdale, led by Chelsea Harrison's 18 points and 9-of-10 free throw shooting, finished 24-of-28 (85.7 percent), at the charity stripe, including 18-of-22 in the second half. Lea Jones finished with 14, while Laura Barczak added 12 to go along with a game-high 15 boards.

The Panthers return home for the first game of a four-game homestand this Saturday at 3 p.m.as Findlay visits Alumni Hall for Pink Wave Day. All proceeds raised at the gate will go to the funding of breast cancer research.

Contact: Bryan Desch
deschb@ohiodominican.edu