Steffen leads Falcons past Colorado State, 70-57

Saturday, December 31

Fort Collins, CO

1:00 PM MT

Bowling Green State University

Colorado State

Chrissy Steffen was all over the court Saturday, helping the Falcons to a win at Colorado State (photo by Doug Sampson)

December 31, 2011 | Women's Basketball

BGSU ends non-conference schedule at 10-3

By: FORT COLLINS, Colo. (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Junior Chrissy Steffen fueled a first-half flurry for the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, and helped her teammates fight off every Colorado State University comeback attempt in the second half en route to a 70-57 win Saturday afternoon (Dec. 31). The game, the Falcons' final non-conference contest of the season, was held at Moby Arena.

FINAL STATS: HTML | PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Curt Miller

With the victory, the Falcons improve to 10-3 on the season. BGSU has posted a double-digit win total in non-league play for the sixth consecutive season, a Mid-American Conference record. The Rams drop to 3-10.

Steffen had a career-high 25 points in the win, and her well-rounded stat line also included seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

The win came in BGSU head coach Curt Miller's return to Fort Collins. Miller was associate head coach at Colorado State for three years prior to taking the Bowling Green job in 2001.

Freshman Jasmine Matthews scored a career-high 12 points in the game, making a career-best four three-pointers to tie Steffen for game honors. The Falcons went 10-of-30 from beyond the arc, and BG held CSU without a trey (0-for-6) in Saturday's game.

Sam Martin and Meghan Heimstra each had 12 points for the Rams. Heimstra also had a game-high nine rebounds.

BGSU, for the eighth consecutive game, held the rebounding advantage, grabbing 33 boards to CSU's 31. Redshirt sophomore Alexis Rogers led the way with eight, while Steffen had seven rebounds and redshirt junior Danielle Havel five.

Havel and senior Jessica Slagle scored eight points apiece, while Rogers added six. Slagle had a game-high five assists for the Brown and Orange.

The Falcons took an early lead on a layup by Rogers with nearly two minutes gone. But, the hosts then proceeded to score the next nine points. Martin had her team's first six points of the afternoon, and a three-point play by Kara Spotton put the Rams up by a 9-2 count at the 14:36 mark.

Slagle's driving layup broke a BG scoring drought of more than four minutes, but Spotton canned a jumper and LaDeyah Forte knocked down a pull-up shot in transition. CSU's lead was 13-4 as Miller used a timeout.

Slowly but surely, the Falcons rallied. Sophomore Jillian Halfhill took a pass from Slagle and hit a trailing three-pointer on the break. That shot began an 8-0 run for the Brown and Orange.

Matthews knocked down a third-chance triple on a possession which saw Steffen pull down two offensive rebounds, and Steffen then converted a driving layup to pull the Falcons within 13-12.

After a CSU timeout, Forte hit a long two-pointer, but Rogers answered with a straightaway trey, and the game was tied with 10:10 left in the half. Two scoreless minutes followed before either team would score again, as Hayley Thompson gave the hosts the lead. But, it would be the Rams' last lead of the day.

Freshman Logan Pastor's long cross-court pass found an open Steffen, who hit a three-pointer from the left side, and BGSU led, 18-17, with just under seven minutes left in the half.

Steffen, who did not score her first points of the game until nearly 10 minutes had elapsed, had 16 points in a span of just under nine minutes. After her trey gave the Falcons the lead, she hit a right-side shot as she received a hard foul. The ensuing free throw was good, and BGSU's lead was 21-17. That advantage increased to six points after Steffen picked Kim Mestdagh's pocket and sailed in for a layup.

Steffen's own personal 8-0 run came in a 92-second span, and the final basket prompted CSU to take another timeout.

Out of that break, Martin hit a layup for the hosts, but Steffen was not finished. She spotted up at the arc, took a kick-out pass from Havel and knocked down another trey for a 26-19 lead. After CSU hit a jumper, Rogers drove the lane and found Havel with a bounce pass for a layup and a 28-21 advantage.

BG's lead reached eight points after another Steffen triple, and the Falcons' margin got to nine points -- the largest of the half -- when Rogers split a pair of free throws at the 1:10 mark. Kim Mestdagh's layup got the Rams within 32-25 at the half.

Havel had the first four points of the second half on a pair of layups, and BGSU took a double-digit lead for the first time. The first of those hoops came after a nifty one-handed offensive rebound by Rogers.

Margin answered with a layup, but Slagle drove and drew Spotton's third foul of the game at the 17:59 mark. Slagle's free throws gave the Falcons a 38-27 lead.

The hosts whittled BG's lead to six points, as Heimstra started and ended a 5-0 mini-run with a pair of buckets. But, Matthews stopped that run with a three-pointer after another Rogers offensive board.

Again, Heimstra got the Rams back within striking distance, twice getting herself to the line and going 4-for-4 from the stripe. BG's lead was just five points, 41-36, with 13:43 remaining.

After a BGSU missed jumper, however, junior Allison Papenfuss came up with an offensive board, and she was fouled by Kim Mestdagh. That foul, with 12:44 left, was the fourth of the game for CSU's leading scorer, and she headed to the bench. Papenfuss knocked down both of her charity tosses.

Those throws began a 7-0 run for the Falcons, with Steffen scoring the last five points. First, she came up with a steal and was fouled on her way to the hoop, making both free throws. Then, Halfhill drove into the paint and fired a pass to Steffen on the right wing. The Carmel, Ind., native's three-point try hit nothing but net, and BG's lead was 12 points, 48-36, with 11:56 on the clock.

The Rams could not narrow the gap, as BG had a response for every CSU score. Steffen got an impressive offensive board and hit a spectacular layup in among the 'tall trees' to give the Falcons a 50-38 lead with 11 minutes remaining.

The teams traded points over the next several minutes, with Papenfuss taking a Halfhill pass and hitting a sweet turnaround banker from the right side, and Matthews knocking down a three-pointer from the left corner.

After the Rams scored four-straight points, another Matthews trey from the same spot gave the Falcons a 60-48 lead with 6:18 left. Havel made a pair of foul shots, and Slagle hit a floater in the lane at the shot-clock buzzer with 4:33 on the clock. BG's run was 7-0 and the Falcons' lead was 16 points, at 64-48.

That lead increased to a game-high 19 points after Matthews found a wide-open Pastor for layups on back-to-back possession. The second layup gave BG a 68-49 lead and was followed by CSU's final timeout of the game, with 3:08 left.

Morgan Hunt hit a layup, but two Steffen free throws with two minutes remaining restored BG's 19-point advantage before the Rams scored the final six points of the game.

The Falcons shot 41.4 percent from the field for the game, going an identical 12-of-29 in each half. CSU shot 42.9% from the floor on the day.

BGSU returns home to open the Mid-American Conference schedule. The Falcons will begin the 2012 calendar year with a three-game homestand, starting with Wednesday's (Jan. 4) game vs. Kent State University. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

FALCON NOTES
* Saturday's victory came in the first game Curt Miller coached in Moby Arena since the 2000-01 season ... Miller spent three seasons as associate head coach on (BGSU graduate) Tom Collen's staff, helping the Rams to an 81-20 record during that time ... Miller took the BGSU head-coaching job prior to the 2001-02 season, and has led the Falcons to a 244-88 record during his time in Northwest Ohio.

* As mentioned, BGSU has posted at least 10 non-conference wins for the sixth consecutive season, a MAC record ... currently, no other MAC team has had more than two such seasons -- consecutive or otherwise -- in league history ... Eastern Michigan has had two 10-win non-conference campaigns, while Kent State and Toledo have had one double-digit non-league season apiece (note: Miami has nine wins with one non-conference game remaining this season).

* Colorado State went 0-for-6 from three-point range on Saturday afternoon ... the game marked the first time in over four years that the Rams did not hit a triple ... the last such game came on Nov. 20, 2007, when CSU also went 0-for-6 in a 70-60 loss at Northern Colorado.