Utterback Career-High Leads Oilers to Win Over Hillsdale
Hillsdale, Mich. – The University of Findlay women's basketball team went on the road to Hillsdale, Michigan on Saturday, Feb. 6 for a Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) game against the Hillsdale College Chargers. The Oilers put the clamps down defensively in the second and third quarters which led to a 72-68 win, giving Findlay a 9-7 record on the season. Hillsdale falls to 2-13 overall and has yet to win a game at home.
The two teams were neck-and-neck for the first half as neither team led by more than six at any point in the opening 20 minutes. Findlay did trail by a point at the break, 30-29.
It was the visiting Oilers that took control of the game to open the third quarter, however, as a 15-2 run in the first four minutes of the second half gave Findlay a 44-32 lead.
The Chargers would make a run of their own however, outscoring the Oilers 21-8 over the next eight minutes of game time to take a 59-52 lead with seven and a half minutes remaining in the game. The strength of that run came from one Hillsdale player, Lauren Daffenberg. In that stretch, Daffenberg made six triples including five straight for the Chargers to end the third and begin the fourth, giving Hillsdale their largest lead of the game.
Findlay absorbed that run and battled back, taking a 61-60 lead with four and a half minutes remaining. However, trailing by one with less than a minute to play, it was junior Bridget Landin who made a layup with 13 seconds on the clock to take a one-point lead. A Hillsdale turnover and later, a missed three by the Charger's Daffenberg, ended the game with the Oilers on top by four.
Both teams shot exactly 37.7% from the floor (26-of-69) with Hillsdale making 14-of-41 and the Oilers making 4-of-19 from beyond the three point line. Findlay made 16 free-throws in the game while the Chargers made just two.
Senior Allison Utterback continued her solid play, scoring a career-high 22 points in the game included 14 in the third quarter alone. Over the past five games, Utterback is scoring 18 points per game after scoring just 5.1 ppg over the first 11 games. She hit 9-of-15 in the game including 3-of-9 from deep.
Junior Bridget Landin scored 14 points while junior Sydney Kin scored 12, the first time since Jan. 2 that Kin had not scored at least 20 in a game. Landin and Kin both had eight rebounds while Landin had three assists and three steals.
Junior Paige Bellman just missed a double-double as she scored nine points and led the game with 14 rebounds. Junior Amber Schweiger scored eight points and had six rebounds, four assists, and four steals.
Daffenberg was the leading scorer for Hillsdale as she poured in 25 points on the strength of 7-of-15 from three-point range.
Findlay will be back in action on Monday, Feb. 8 as they host the conference leading Cedarville Yellow Jackets. That game will start at 3:00 pm.