HILLSDALE, Mich. - Aarion Nichols recorded a career-high 24 points while also pulling down 12 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season as Tiffin women's basketball defeated Hillsdale 80-73 on the road Thursday evening.
The win avenges a three-point home loss to the Chargers earlier this season and plays a critical role in the Dragons' postseason hopes. With the victory, TU improves to 6-9 in GMAC play on the season and would move into sole possession of the seventh in the conference with a Lake Erie loss later tonight.
With just three games left to play in the regular season, Tiffin controls their own destiny to get into the playoffs, as just one more win would almost guarantee at least the eighth and final seed.
Tiffin came out with a great effort to start the game, opening with an 11-3 run over the first seven minutes of the contest.
The lead would remain at seven at the end of the first quarter and would build to eight by halftime with the visitors going into the break up 37-29.
Hillsdale fought back and cut the deficit to three by the end of the third quarter, but Tiffin was able to hold off the Charger rally and pull back ahead before icing the game at the free-throw line in the final minutes.
While the shooting percentages from the field were very even (just a 1.3% difference), the Dragons faired much better from deep with six made threes on 13 attempts (46.2%) compared to 7-22 (31.8%) for Hillsdale.
The Dragons also outrebounded the Chargers significantly, 42-31, and received a much larger contribution from their bench to the tune of 24-14.
As mentioned, Nichols paced Tiffin with a monster double-double on the night, followed by Savanah Richards' fifth-straight game in double-figure scoring with 18 points.
Jada Tate added nine points for TU, while Jensen Hiegel filled up the stat sheet with seven points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block. Jasmine Watts also tallied three blocks to go along with seven points and eight boards off the bench.
The Dragons will face a much tougher test on Saturday in rival Findlay, as the Oilers came into Thursday sixth in the GMAC standings at 8-5. However, the Dragons very nearly took down the Oilers when the two teams met earlier this season in the Gillmor Center, mounting a late comeback to tie the game at 66 before Findlay was fouled with less than a second left and converted a free throw for the one-point win.