Grit, fight and determination: A perfect description of Colorado State’s Sunday.
CSU women’s basketball defeated future Pac-12 opponent Gonzaga 74-72 in a nail-biting duel that ended in overtime. After being down by 20 points at halftime, the squad showed its resilient nature that has been displayed all year long to fight back and win.
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The hero of the day: Brooke Carlson. Carlson, a first-year, scored the game-winning driving layup with 2.6 seconds remaining, beating her defender on the left wing and scooping it up underneath the help defender to push the Rams past the finish line.
“They kept jumping towards all the action the other way,” Carlson said. “So I just saw a little split and I took it in.”
“It just builds my confidence. Especially with the team, they all have my back — and I have their back — so it’s fun, and you just get to play freely and get the win.”
Emma Ronsiek led the scoring for the Rams, recording 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field, all while playing the entire 45 minutes of game time, overtime included.
Carlson, alongside her game-winning layup, was the other top contributor as a spark plug off the bench, contributing 18 points — a new season-high — in 28 minutes. Seven of those points came in the third quarter, where the Rams originally made their larger push to cut the lead to just five after winning the quarter 24-9.
“That’s how (Carlson) is wired,” coach Ryun Williams said. “She was brilliant in that second half — really in the entire game — and I just loved her mentality and the motor. She gives you that player that can put pressure on the rim. I think you saw the coming-out party of Brooke Carlson.”
The first half was full of miscues for the Rams. They only mustered two points off of seven Gonzaga turnovers, shot 9-of-31 from the field, and had almost no contributions elsewhere aside from Emma Ronsiek.
CSU only scored 23 points in the first half, and 12 of those came from Emma Ronsiek. Not one other starter scored in that first half aside from her.
“We couldn’t get a shot to fall early, so we pressed a little bit and dug ourselves a big hole,” Williams said. “We made plenty of mistakes because of that, and I think we just changed the thinking and freed it up and said — I don’t give a darn.”
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The Bulldogs were scorching hot shooting the rock in the first half, opening up that 20-point cushion at the half. Forward Maud Huijbens had already recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds by that point. Forward Yvonne Ejim poured in 12 of her own, and the Bulldogs shot 57% from the field as a group.
That all changed once the third quarter hit, as higher defensive intensity from the Rams led to a 2-of-13 shooting performance from the Bulldogs in the third quarter, opening up the game.
“Everybody else saw what (Gonzaga) was doing offensively, and they loved to get it to that little mid-range pull-up,” Hannah Ronsiek said. “So we took that away, and then being able to dedicate more towards the post took a lot of their offense away in the second half that they had in the first half.”
Despite very little contributions aside from Emma Ronsiek in the first half, everything shifted from that point on. Lanes opened up for the drive-and-kick, shots began to fall and the momentum quickly shifted heavily towards the Rams as the clock winded down.
Hannah Ronsiek scored all 13 of her points in the second half, including three 3-pointers which all came at clutch moments. Hannah Simental hit a large 3 to tie the game at 55 apiece with 7:38 remaining, alongside Emma Ronsiek’s two clutch triples in the fourth quarter.
“We wanted it under ten going into the fourth, and it was five going into the fourth quarter,” Williams said. “They did a great job crawling back in that thing, and then we got the crowd involved — and that kind of got us over the hump.
Moby Arena was rocking on Sunday afternoon, as this match recorded the highest attendance numbers of the young season as the university had pushed to get a sell-out — an initiative they have started doing yearly for one game.
“We told the group at halftime — get the crowd involved,” Williams said. “They made the difference, especially in the latter part of that third quarter, they really got involved — and it lifted us because we were tired. … It’s not very often you have the president of your university and your AD turning around to the crowd and ‘Let’s Go! Let’s Go!.’ I think (the crowd) was the key tonight. We were one score better because of our fans tonight so thanks Rams fans.”
Ejim of the Bulldogs had an opportunity to win the game at the line after getting fouled down one with one second remaining in regulation. She went 1-for-2 at the line, tying the ball game up, which ultimately led to a special, gritty overtime comeback win for CSU.
The Rams will improve to 7-3 on the season with this win, and ride the high as they prepare for another home battle against UTEP at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 16.
“That’s my main thing, to go in and do what I can,” Carlson said. “I feel like I am an energy player, and that’s what I’m going to bring every time on the court — and then it builds everyone else up around, and then we can all just play and have fun.”
Reach Devin Imsirpasic at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter at @DImsirpasic.
