Rogers Leads Falcons Past EMU, 70-54

Sunday, January 22

Bowling Green, Ohio

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Eastern Michigan

Alexis Rogers had a career-high 30 points vs. Eastern Michigan (photo by Nathan Dreimiller, BGSU Marketing & Communications)

January 22, 2012 | Women's Basketball

Redshirt soph explodes for career-high 30 points

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Redshirt sophomore Alexis Rogers exploded for a career-high 30 points, leading the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team to a 70-54 victory over Eastern Michigan University Sunday afternoon (Jan. 22). The Mid-American Conference game was held at the Stroh Center.

FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
PHOTO GALLERY: Photos by Brandon Heiss & Nathan Dreimiller
POSTGAME AUDIO: Alexis Rogers | Assoc. Head Coach Jennifer Roos

With the win in the battle of MAC division leaders, the Falcons improve to 16-3 overall and 6-0 in the conference. The Eagles drop to 12-7 and 4-2, respectively.

BGSU has won nine consecutive games, and the Falcons have captured 16 of 17 contests after an 0-2 start to the season.

Rogers had 16 points in the opening half, as the Falcons opened up a 16-point lead at the intermission. She scored 14 of her team's 29 second-half points.

BGSU shot 51.0 percent from the field as a team, including a 16-of-26 performance (61.5%) in the opening half. The Falcon defense allowed the Eagles to shoot just 27.3% on the day.

Junior Chrissy Steffen joined Rogers in double digits with 11 points, including eight in the second period. Senior Jessica Slagle and freshman Jasmine Matthews scored eight points apiece for the Brown and Orange. Slagle added a career-high six assists, as the Falcons had 16 helpers on 25 buckets.

The win was the 250th overall victory in the head-coaching career of Curt Miller. Miller, in his 11th season with the Falcons, is the school's all-time wins leader, and ranks second on the MAC list.

Tavelyn James led the Eagles with 29 points, while Natachia Watkins added 10. Paige Redditt scored seven points and had a game-high 14 rebounds.

EMU held a 39-33 rebounding advantage, snapping a 13-game streak in which the Falcons had outrebounded the opponents. Rogers led the Falcons with nine boards in Sunday's game.

BGSU scored on each of the first two possessions of the game, taking a quick 5-0 lead. Matthews hit a three-pointer from the left corner, the first of seven BG triples on the afternoon, and redshirt junior Danielle Havel then knocked down a short-corner jumper from the left side.

The Eagles battled right back to tie the score with three minutes gone, but the Brown and Orange then took the lead for good. After a Slagle steal, Steffen found Rogers at the top of the arc for a straightaway trey, beginning an 8-0 run.

A steal by Rogers led to an 'and-one' layup by Slagle, who hit the free throw after the day's first media timeout to give her team an 11-5 advantage. Then, after another EMU turnover, a Rogers layup put the Falcons up by eight with just over five minutes gone in the game.

Jame hit a layup to snap BG's run, but Slagle fired a lone pass ahead to junior Allison Papenfuss for a layup at the other end of the court. A jumper by Watkins, however, was followed by a James three-ball to cut the Falcons' lead to just 15-12.

But, Steffen curled around a screen, took a pass from Slagle and knocked down a triple try from the right wing. The Falcons were 7-of-15 from long distance on the day, including a 5-for-10 performance in the first half.

Steffen's trey began another scoring run for the Falcons, who had nine-straight points to take a 24-12 lead. After Steffen's triple, Rogers went around her defender for a layup, an EMU foul and a three-point play.

The BG defense forced a miss, and sophomore Jillian Halfhill took a Papenfuss pass and drilled a triple with 11:11 left in the half.

The teams traded hoops, with Matthews driving and finding Rogers with a nifty pass for an easy layup and a 26-14 lead. But, the Eagles, in the person of James, scored five points in a row. When a James three-point effort bounced off the rim and fell through the hoop, BG's advantage was seven points with under eight minutes left in the period.

The Falcons answered with a crazy sequence that led to three points. Slagle drove the lane, was knocked off balance and fired a pass to Havel. Havel received the pass in traffic and, as she appeared to be falling to the ground as well, sent the ball in the direction of Matthews. Matthews, stationed at the three-point line, completed the possession by burying a shot for a 29-19 BG lead.

After two James free throws, Rogers used sheer strength and determination to restore the Falcons' 10-point lead. After a three-point try was off the mark, Rogers ripped the ball out of the grasp of an EMU player, made a shot fake and laid the ball off the glass and in.

Two more EMU charity tosses cut BG's lead to eight points, but a jumper by sophomore Noelle Yoder began a 10-0 run for the Falcons. BGSU held EMU without a point for over four minutes, and without a field goal for nearly a seven-and-a-half-minute span.

Yoder's bucket was followed by a Rogers jumper, two Steffen throws and layups by both Rogers and Slagle. Desyree Thomas finally broke EMU's drought with a jumper with only 21 seconds left in the half.

The Falcons, as mentioned, shot 61.5 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, making 16-of-26 attempts. EMU went just 9-of-31 (29.0%) from the floor before halftime.

The second half saw the teams go over two minutes without scoring, but Rogers converted another conventional three-point play at the 17:55 mark, giving the Brown and Orange a 44-25 lead.

The lead hovered around the high teens, and BG took a 48-31 lead into the first media timeout of the period after Slagle found sophomore Jill Stein for a layup. The Falcons' lead reached 18 points once again after a Rogers layup at the 15:22 mark, before Steffen heated up.

The Falcons' leading scorer, Steffen was held to five points in the first half, but proceeded to hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the hosts a game-high 22-point lead. She threw an entry pass to Stein, took a return pass in the left corner and knocked down a triple with 14 minutes left in the game.

Then, Steffen drained another trey at the 12:06 mark, this time off of a pass from Yoder, and the Falcons were ahead, 56-34. But, the Eagles were not finished.

A pair of free throws by Olivia Fouty began a 7-0 run for the visitors. James scored the final five points during that span, culminating with a transition three with 9:47 left.

The BG lead was whittled to 11 points after a pair of free throws by James with 6:36 remaining. But, the Falcons scored the game's next seven points, with five coming at the free-throw line, to regain control.

Rogers and Slagle each hit two tosses before Rogers converted yet another three-point play for the Brown and Orange. Her field goal, with 4:42 remaining, was BG's first bucket in a span of over seven minutes (since Steffen's trey at the 12:06 mark), and her free throw gave the hosts a 65-47 lead. EMU would get no closer than 15 points thereafter.

BGSU had 21 turnovers on the day, but forced the Eagles into 20. The Falcons turned EMU's miscues into points, however, with a 26-12 advantage in points off turnovers.

Rogers and Slagle each had three steals as the Falcons had nine as a team. Rogers also had two blocked shots, as did Havel, who played only 14 minutes due to foul trouble. In addition to her four points, Havel managed to total five rebounds, two assists and the two blocks in those 14 minutes.

The Falcons now return to the road for a pair of games next week, beginning with a Wednesday (Jan. 25) contest at Ball State University. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m.

NOTES
* Sunday's win, as mentioned, was the 250th career victory for BGSU head coach Curt Miller ... Miller, the school's all-time wins leader by over 100 victories, is just the second MAC women's basketball coach to reach the 250-win milestone ... Kent State's Bob Lindsay tops that list, with 416 wins after the Flashes' Sunday triumph over Central Michigan.

* Redshirt sophomore Alexis Rogers scored 30 points on Sunday, the first time this season that a BGSU player has had at least 30 points in a game ... the last player to do so also accomplished the feat vs. Eastern Michigan ... Lauren Prochaska had 37 points in the teams' last regular-season meeting, a 60-55 BG win in Ypsilanti (Feb. 12, 2011).