March 4, 2010

Complete Release

Colorado State (13-15, 5-10) is on the road for its final regular-season contest at Utah (18-10, 9-6) Saturday. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. MT at the Huntsman Center (15,000).

The Rams look to move above UNLV in the standings to capture the seventh seed in the Mountain West tournament next week. CSU can clinch seventh with a win and a UNLV loss to Wyoming. CSU owns the tiebreaker over the Rebels.
 
On Wednesday in Provo, Utah's Kalee Whipple and Taryn Wicijowski both put up double figures with 15 and 12 points, respectively, but the Utes were never able to overcome a game-opening 13-0 run by BYU. The Cougars won, 54-37.

The game will be broadcast live on AM 1410 KIIX. Brian Roth calls the action while Matt Wozniak provides color analysis. Live game audio will also be available via Rams All-Access subscription on CSURams.com.

Rams vs. Utes series...   
Saturday's meeting between Colorado State and Utah marks the 72nd overall game between the two schools.

Utah holds a 57-14 advantage in the all-time series, with a 31-4 mark in Salt Lake City. The Rams are currently on a three-game losing streak to the Utes dating back to March 12, 2008, when Colorado State knocked off the No.1 seed in the Mountain West championships, 12th-ranked Utah.

Last meeting...    
The Colorado State Rams (11-10, 3-5) extended their losing streak to three as they lost a heartbreaker to the Utah Utes (13-8, 4-4) Feb. 3 at Moby Arena.

It was a tough competition, including 10 lead changes, and the Rams battled till the end. With 30 seconds left to play and the Rams trailing 66-65, a forced foul put Utah’s Janita Badon at the charity stripe. After missing two free throws, Utah was able to grab its own rebound, clinching the victory.

About Utah...    
The Utes rank No. 1 in the Mountain West in rebounding margin, averaging 4.9 more rebounds than their opponents. Utah pulls down a league-leading 26.9 defensive rebounds per game.

Senior Kalee Whipple leads the conference in scoring with 17.4 points per game. She jumped ahead of CSU's Kim Mestdagh after she scored 45 points in a quadruple-overtime game vs. TCU. Freshman Taryn Wicijowski is second on the team and sixth in the conference in scoring with 14.1 points per game.

Last time out...    
The Rams battled the Aztecs tough for 30 minutes, leading by as many as four in the second half, but the Aztecs would out score the Rams 31-12 over the final 10 minutes en route to a 73-54 win at Moby Arena Wednesday evening.

Trailing by three, 27-24, at the break, the Rams opened the second half on a 7-0 run to take a 31-27 lead with 16 minutes, 39 seconds to play. Minutes later, however, San Diego State came firing back with a 9-0 run of its own to capture its largest lead at the time, 39-33.

Kim Mestdagh, who finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists, connected on her second consecutive three-pointer with 11:08 to play, and a steal on the other end by Chatilla van Grinsven led to a fast-break layup by Meghan Heimstra. Heimstra, who drew a foul on the play, converted the free throw to tie the score at 42-42 with 10:41 to play.

San Diego State would use a 17-4 run over the next 3:05, however, and led by double digits the rest of the way. Its largest lead, 19, was the final score.

The Rams were without Meixandra Porter, who suffered a concussion in Saturday’s loss to TCU, and got limited playing time from Chantel Kennedy, who is battling the flu, and Zoi Simmons.

Both teams shot under 40 percent from the floor on the night, but the big difference was from beyond the arc. Colorado State connected on just 4-of-19 from three-point range, compared to San Diego State’s 10-for-22. The Aztecs also outrebounded the Rams 48-36 and forced more turnovers, 21-17.

The Rams were led by Heimstra and van Grinsven, who scored 16 points apiece. Heimstra also led the Rams with eight rebounds while van Grinsven grabbed seven.

Despite the loss, the Rams closed out their home schedule 9-5 on the season, their best home record since 2004-05 when they went 11-5 at Moby Arena.

Building a program of excellence... 
The Rams, now 13-15, are in eighth place in the Mountain West Conference. With just one game remaining, the Rams have already surpassed their win total from last season. CSU hasn't won 13 games in one season since the 2004-05 campaign, when the team went 15-13.

Filling up the stat sheet...   
Sophomore Chatilla van Grinsven has started 39.3 percent (11-28) of the Rams games this year and averages 24.9 minutes per game. As an off-the-bench starter, she places second in most categories. She averages 11.7 oints per game, 6.3 rebounds per game, and she has 19 blocks on the season.

On Feb. 24, at New Mexico, van Grinsven picked up her second career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Her first double-double effort came at home vs. Wyoming on Jan. 5, when she grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds.

From the line...    
Junior guard Zoi Simmons is tied for second in the conference in free-throw percentage (.833). In the Rams' final non-conference game this season vs. South Dakota, Simmons hit six free throws in the final minute, when the Rams were clinging to a one-point lead and had not made a field goal since the 6:49 mark, to ice the win. She was 8-8 on the afternoon.

Heimstra, Kennedy well-balanced...  
In 28 games this season sophomore forward Meghan Heimstra has scored a total of 249 points and has 221 rebounds. She leads the team in rebounds per game with 7.9 and is third in points with 8.9 per game. Defensively, the sophomore averages 5.6 boards per game, which puts her in third place in the conference. Heimstra has four double-doubles this season, and she recorded a career-high 14 rebounds in the Jan. 5 game vs. Wyoming.

Freshman Chantel Kennedy pulls down boards at both ends of the court. This season she has 46 offensive rebounds and 51 defensive. Kennedy averages 3.5 rebounds per game, fourth-highest on the team, despite having a height advantage over only three other players.

Mestdagh sets record highs...   
Sophomore Kim Mestdagh leads the Mountain West in three-point field goals made and is second in scoring. In 28 games this season, Mestdagh has 458 points, averaging 16.4 per game. She has hit 85 three pointers averaging 3.0 per game above second-place Amy Beggin of New Mexico, who has 57 beyond the arc. She also leads the MWC in double-figure scoring games with 25 this season.

The Ieper, Belgium native recorded her first career double-double at New Mexico Feb. 24. She had 19 points and a career-high 11 rebounds in the contest.

Mestdagh is now first place, surpassing all-time points-leader Becky Hammon, for three-pointers made (85) and attempted (227), in a single season among sophomores all-time in CSU's program history.

In the Rams' matchup vs. South Dakota on Jan. 2, Mestdagh recorded six steals, a career-high, season team high, and tied for second in the conference this season.

Mestdagh’s 30 points Dec. 6 vs. Southern Illinois were the most by a CSU player in a 40-minute regulation game since Becky Hammon poured in 30, March 14, 1999, to lead the Rams to an 86-70 win over Southwest Missouri State in the second round of the NCAA tournament, in front of 8,741 Moby Arena fans. Sara Hunter had 41 in a 101-96 overtime loss vs. San Francisco on Nov. 13, 2007. Hammon scored 30 or more in eight games that season.

Up next...     
Colorado State will have a short break before the Mountain West championships begin. The team will play in either the 5:30 p.m. MT game or the later 8 p.m. game in the first round on Tuesday.