Falcons Soar Past Wyoming, 79-69, for Fourth-Straight Win

Sunday, December 16

Bowling Green, OH

1:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Wyoming

December 16, 2012 | Women's Basketball

All five BGSU starters score in double digits

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Chrissy Steffen v Madonna - Bianca Garza photo

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team combined first-half offense with second-half defense to post a 79-69 win over the University of Wyoming Sunday afternoon (Dec. 16). The non-conference game was held at the Stroh Center.

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POSTGAME AUDIO: Chrissy Steffen | Jennifer Roos
Scroll down for video of the postgame interviews

With the victory, the Falcons improve to 7-3 on the season, and BGSU has won four consecutive games. The Cowgirls drop to 8-2 on the year, and UW sees a four-game winning streak come to an end.

All five BGSU starters scored in double digits, with two Falcons reaching the 20-point mark. Senior Chrissy Steffen had a game-high 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting, while redshirt junior Alexis Rogers scored 20 points in the victory.

Sophomore Jasmine Matthews had 11 points, while both senior Danielle Havel and junior Jillian Halfhill scored 10. Havel had a double-double, pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds, and she also had five assists to lead all players.

Rogers just missed a double-double, with nine boards as the Falcons had a 39-33 advantage on the glass. Halfhill, a point guard, had seven rebounds to go along with four assists.

The 79 points tied a season high for the Falcons, and BGSU set new season bests for field-goal percentage and three-point field-goal accuracy.

The Cowgirls got 13 points from both Kayla Woodward and Kaitlyn Mileto, while Ashley Sickles and Alison Gorrell each scored 11. Wyoming's fifth starter, Chaundra Sewell, just missed joining the game's other nine starters in double figures. Sewell scored eight points and led UW with 10 rebounds.

Fallon Lewis had nine points off the bench for the Cowgirls. Both UW's Lewis and BGSU's Steffen were a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point land, helping their respective teams to identical 8-for-14 (57.1%) afternoons from beyond the arc.

BGSU shot an even 50.0% from the field for the game, including a 51.7% success rate in the first half. The Cowgirls shot 50.0% in the opening half, and the teams combined to go 13-of-18 from three-point land in those first 20 minutes.

In the second half, though, the BG defense allowed Wyoming to make just nine field goals in 30 tries (30.0%), while BGSU shot 47.8% from the floor.

The Cowgirls scored on three of their first four possessions, as Mileto hit a jumper and knocked down a pair of free throws to give the visitors a 4-0 lead. Layups by Rogers and Steffen knotted the score, but Gorrell hit a triple for a 7-4 Wyoming lead.

With just over two minutes gone, however, Steffen took a pass from Matthews and hit a trey, sparking a 9-0 run for the Falcons. All of BG's scoring during that run came from long range, with Matthews hitting the final two shots. First, she ran the floor after a BG defensive rebound, took a pass from Halfhill and knocked down a triple try from the left wing.

Then, Havel blocked a UW shot attempt and grabbed the rebound to give the ball back to the Falcons. The ensuing possession saw Steffen find Matthews for another trey, giving the home team a 13-7 lead with just three-and-a-half minutes gone.

The lead fluctuated between four and six points for the next few minutes, until a Woodward three-pointer cut BG's lead to just three. Despite holding a 10-2 rebounding margin, the Falcons' lead on the scoreboard was just 17-14. Then, a Mileto jumper got the visitors within a single point, and Sewell scored inside to put the Cowgirls on top by an 18-17 score.

Freshman Miriam Justinger split a pair of free throws to tie the game, but a Mileto jumper put the visitors back on top. Two Rogers charity tosses knotted the score, but Lewis hit from long range at the 8:32 mark.

Steffen, however, responded with a long three-pointer to tie the game for the fifth and final time, and another Steffen trey gave the Falcons the lead for good with 7:47 left in the period. After an offensive foul by the Cowgirls, BG's next possession resulted in a second-chance three by Havel and a 29-23 lead.

The teams traded hoops for the next few minutes, as Woodward's jumper was answered by a Rogers driving layup. Mileto scored twice within a 30-second span, but Havel threw the ball inside to Rogers for an 'and-one' layup. The resulting free throw was good, giving BG a 34-29 lead with just under five minutes left in the half.

Mileto split a pair of free throws, but Matthews took Havel's pass and hit a three-pointer. That play was set up by a highlight-reel pass from Rogers. When a teammate's pass into the post was too high, Rogers made a leaping effort to catch the ball and throw a pass out to Havel, all in one motion. Havel, near the free-throw line, whipped the ball to Matthews at the left elbow, and the sophomore's triple try was true, giving the hosts a 37-30 lead.

That Matthews trey made BGSU 7-of-9 from long range to begin the game.

Lewis sandwiched a pair of three-pointers around a Steffen layup, banking the second shot home from a bad angle, and BG's lead was down to three-pointer. Halfhill took a pass from junior Jill Stein and threw in a crazy one-handed shot as she was knocked to the floor, giving the Falcons a five-point advantage. Her resulting free-throw try did not drop, and Sickles hit from long range to cut BG's lead to a bucket, at 41-39. Steffen, however, made a layup with just under a minute left in the period to give the hosts a four-point cushion at the break.

Steffen and Rogers combined for 28 first-half points, with Steffen scoring 15 on 6-of-7 shooting, and Rogers scoring 13. Rogers and Havel each had seven rebounds before the intermission.

The BG defense got a stop on the opening possession of the second half, and Havel took a Rogers pass and drained a three-point try from in front of her own team's bench. Gorrell answered with a jumper, and after a Steffen layup, UW scored the next five points to cut the Falcons' lead to just two points. That 5-0 run saw Sickles hit a layup and Sewell convert a three-point play at the 15:03 mark.

Rogers threw the ball inside to Stein for a layup, but Aubry Boehme quickly responded at the other end. That Boehme basket, however, would be Wyoming's last hoop for nearly six minutes.

BG proceeded to go on an 11-0 run, beginning with a long two-point jumper by Justinger. Then, the freshman stole a Wyoming inbounds pass near midcourt, took the ball downcourt and hit a contested layup for a 54-48 Falcon advantage.

Havel found Rogers inside, then Halfhill spotted Havel for a layup of her own. When Rogers backed her defender into the paint, turned and banked a shot off glass and in, BG's lead was 12 points, 60-48, with just under nine minutes left. Matthews split a pair of tosses to complete the 11-point run.

BGSU kept the lead in double figures for the next few minutes, with many of the points during that stretch coming at the free-throw line. After a Woodward layup cut the Falcons' lead to 69-59 with 4:02 left, the Falcons proceeded to hold onto the ball until just 2:15 remained. BG had three offensive rebounds during that stretch, from Stein, Steffen and Havel. The Falcons could score just a single point in that time, on a Rogers free throw, and the Cowgirls finally got a rebound after a missed three-point try.

Wyoming got four free throws in the next two possessions, and BG responded each time by splitting a pair of free-throw tries. When Sickles hit a three-pointer with 1:26 remaining, the Falcons' lead was suddenly down to six points, at 72-66, as UW called time.

The Falcons broke the Wyoming press, then worked nearly all of the shot clock on the next possession, and Steffen hit a driving layup with 57.6 seconds left, drawing Sewell's fifth foul in the process. The free-throw try did not go down, though, and Sickles hit yet another trey to cut the BG lead to 74-69 with 44.9 seconds left.

Halfhill was fouled with 37.1 seconds remaining and split a pair of charity tosses, but the Falcons forced a UW missed shot, with Halfhill grabbing the rebound in traffic. She was fouled with 18.3 seconds left, and hit both of her shots for an eight-point BG advantage. UW's next offensive possession was unsuccessful, and Havel came up with a defensive rebound, was fouled and knocked down a pair of free throws to close the scoring.

Matthews was 3-of-4 from three-point range on the day, while Havel hit two of her four long-range tosses. Sickles went 3-for-6 from beyond the arc for the visitors.

Justinger had five points off the bench for the Falcons, making two of her three field-goal attempts in the win. The teams combined for only 21 turnovers on the day, with the Cowgirls committing only nine turnovers and BG 12.

BGSU's win makes the Falcons a perfect 3-0 against Mountain West Conference opponents this season. The Brown and Orange defeated UNLV in the Lady Rebels' own tournament, then downed Colorado State at the Stroh Center.

Rogers reached the 20-point plateau for the second consecutive Sunday. She had a game-high 25 points in BG's last contest, a 60-37 win at Northwestern last weekend (Dec. 9).

With her 21 points, Steffen increased her career total to 973 points. She is looking to become just the 25th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark.

The Falcons now prepare for a Wednesday (Dec. 19) game against the University of Massachusetts. That game will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass.