Creighton Hangs on for 49-47 Win over Falcons

Sunday, December 18

Omaha, Neb.

1:05 PM CT

Bowling Green State University

Creighton

Allison Papenfuss had 8 points and a team-leading 9 rebounds at Creighton (photo by Brad Phalin)

December 18, 2011 | Women's Basketball

By: OMAHA, Neb. (BGSU Athletic Communications)

A three-pointer by Carli Tritz with 1:11 remaining gave host Creighton University a 49-47 win over the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team Sunday afternoon (Dec. 18). The non-conference game was held at D.J. Sokol Arena.

FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Curt Miller

With the win, the Bluejays improve to 5-4 on the season. The Falcons drop to 7-3 on the year, and Sunday's setback snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Brown and Orange.

Junior Chrissy Steffen led the Falcons in scoring, with 10 points on the afternoon, while senior Jessica Slagle and redshirt sophomore Alexis Rogers had nine apiece.

The Falcons led for much of the first half, before a late Creighton rally gave the Jays a 26-25 advantage at the intermission. BG briefly regained the lead at the start of the second period, before the hosts forged back ahead.

CU held the lead for most of the half, but a three-point field goal by redshirt junior Danielle Havel tied the score with 3:34 left. BG would take the lead on a jumper by junior Allison Papenfuss at the 2:11 mark, but Tritz hit the decisive trey exactly one minute later.

Papenfuss had a solid game, with eight points and a career-high nine rebounds for the Brown and Orange. Her point total tied her season best. Sarah Nelson led all players in both scoring and rebounding, with 17 points and 10 boards for the Bluejays.

After the Tritz triple, Steffen was called for an offensive foul as she drove the baseline with 43.3 seconds remaining. The Bluejays used nearly all of the shot clock on the ensuing possession, and late in that possession, Tritz missed a jumper. The ball went out of bounds to the Falcons with 12.9 seconds left.

BGSU brought the ball upcourt, but a pass in the direction of Papenfuss was deflected. With the game clock ticking down, Papenfuss was able to grab hold of the ball and get a shot off in traffic, but the ball bounced off the rim as the final horn sounded.

The Falcons had gotten off to a great start, scoring the game's first seven points and leading by as many as 10 midway through the opening half. After the first possession of the game resulted in a missed jumper for the Falcons, a Havel steal gave BG the ball back. Rogers grabbed an offensive board and kicked the ball out to Slagle for a second-chance three-pointer.

Defense led to offense for the Falcons, as BG got back-to-back steals and layups. First, Rogers deflected a Creighton pass, and Slagle grabbed the ball and went coast to coast for a layup. Then, Steffen picked Ally Jensen's pocket near midcourt and sailed in for another layup and a 7-0 lead at the 17:56 mark.

DaNae Moore, who had seven points in the game, got her team on the board, but sophomore Jillian Halfhill answered, hitting a runner in the lane. A long two-pointer by Rogers put BG ahead by an 11-2 count at the initial media timeout.

Out of that timeout, however, Havel was called for a pair of fouls just nine seconds aparts, and headed to the bench soon after. The teams traded points over the next few minutes, with Rogers hitting another long two-pointer for a 13-4 lead. After Nelson answered at the other end, Rogers faked another shot from the same spot and fired a quick pass inside to Papenfuss for a wide-open layup and a 15-6 advantage.

The teams then went close to three minutes without scoring, before Moore hit a jumper at the 10:38 mark. Rogers, however, answered by blowing by her defender and heading down the middle for a layup and a 17-8 lead. Steffen split a pair of free throws for an 18-8 advantage, BG's largest of the day, with 9:28 left before halftime. But, the hosts would respond.

CU scored the next four points before sophomore Jill Stein hit a scoop shot down low. But, the hosts came back with two more layups, and BG's lead was down to just 20-16 at the final media break of the period. Additionally, Havel, back in the game, was called for a third foul as the teams headed into that media timeout with 3:31 on the clock.

Steffen stole Jasmin Corbin's cross-court pass and took off ahead of the pack for a layup and a 22-16 advantage. But, after Moore split two charity tosses, the Jays heated up from behind the arc.

Creighton, after going 0-for-8 from three-point range over the first 17-plus minutes of the contest, proceeded to make three in a row. The Jays hit triples on three-straight possessions to end the first half, beginning with Ally Jensen's shot with 1:51 left in the period.

Rogers answered that shot, taking a pass from Steffen and hitting a straightaway trey for a 25-20 BGSU lead. But, Jordan Garrison converted from long range with 1:05 left in the half, and Tritz knocked down a triple try with 23.6 seconds remaining. The Jays led for the first time in the game, and CU took that 26-25 advantage into the lockerroom.

Slagle opened the scoring in the second period, taking a Halfhill pass and scoring on a layup in transition at the 18:45 mark. But, Nelson answered with a layup two minutes later, sparking a 6-0 run.

After Nelson's shot, Rogers drove and hit a layup, but the shot was waved off as an offensive foul was called. The foul, with 16:26 remaining in the game, was Rogers' third.

Another Nelson layup was followed by a Tritz transition layup, and the Jays led by a 32-27 count. Freshman Logan Pastor lobbed a pass inside to Stein for a layup at the 14:08 mark, but Alyssa Kamphaus answered with a jumper for the home team.

Papenfuss, however, hit back-to-back shots, grabbing a teammate's miss and laying the ball in with 12:48 left, then putting back her own missed shot just under a minute later. When that shot went through the hoop, BG trailed by just one point with 11:52 left.

Nelson, however, answered with a three-pointer for a 37-33 lead. A jumper by sophomore Noelle Yoder cut the Falcons' deficit in half midway through the period, but Tritz hit a layup at the other end of the court.

Slagle took another coast-to-coast trip and hit a layup, and a Steffen free throw put BGSU within a single point with 7:14 remaining. Rogers, though, was called for her fourth foul with 6:09 on the clock, and Nelson made one of her two free-throw tries. A Steffen free throw was followed by a Nelson layup, and the hosts led by a 42-39 count with 4:52 remaining. The score remained the same until the final media timeout of the afternoon.

Out of that timeout, Havel headed to the left corner, took a pass from Slagle and knocked down a three-pointer to tie the score, 42-42. Nelson drew Havel's fourth foul on an 'and-one' layup, making the ensuing free throw with 3:05 remaining, but a Slagle pass found Steffen in the left corner, and the junior hit a triple from nearly the same spot as Havel's shot. With 2:58 left, the teams were tied once again.

Rogers was called for her fifth foul of the day, however, with 2:31 remaining, and Ally Jensen split a pair of free throws. The Falcons and Bluejays combined to go just 9-of-19 from the free-throw line on the day.

Papenfuss drained a jumper from the right elbow with 2:11 left, giving the Brown and Orange a 47-46 lead, and Nelson was whistled for an offensive foul, giving the ball back to the Falcons. But, a BGSU shot was blocked by Nelson, and the hosts rebounded the ball to set the stage for Tritz's winning shot.

The teams were relatively even in most statistical categories. Creighton shot 40.4 percent from the field to the Falcons' 40.0%, and CU hit five three-pointers to BGSU's four. The Brown and Orange had a narrow 33-32 rebounding edge, with Papenfuss, as mentioned, grabbing nine boards and Rogers seven.

Sunday's game marked BGSU's first loss this season when outrebounding the opponent. The Falcons are 4-1 in such games this year and 143-14 in the Curt Miller Era.

BGSU had 10 steals on the day, with Rogers picking up a game-high four. The Falcons had a narrow 24-22 advantage in points in the paint, while the Jays had a 14-10 edge in points off turnovers.

The Falcons return home for one final game prior to the Christmas holiday. BGSU takes on Madonna University on Wednesday night (Dec. 21), with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.