Falcons Make a Stop at the Stroh, Facing NIU Saturday

BGSU vs. NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Sat., January 9, 2021 • 12:00 p.m.
Stroh Center • Bowling Green, Ohio

TELEVISION / VIDEO: ESPN3
AUDIO: Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO)
LIVE STATS: BGSUFalcons.com | TWITTER: @BGSUwbb

All audio, stats & video links can be found right here at BGSUFalcons.com on game day

SETTING THE SCENE
• The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team. off to a 4-0 start in Mid-American Conference action, is slated to play just one home game in a 28-day span. For head coach Robyn Fralick and the Falcons, that game is Saturday (Jan. 9), as Northern Illinois University comes to town. Tipoff is set for 12:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

• The Falcons are 8-1 overall, and have tied the best nine-game start to a season in school history. BGSU has won the last two games – both on the road – by a combined 59 points. The Falcons rang in the New Year with an 89-55 win over Ball State over the weekend (Jan. 2), then downed Western Michigan, 73-48, on Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 6).

• At 4-0 in the MAC, BGSU has topped the conference win total for all of last season.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, BGSU will unfortunately not have any public attendance for women's basketball games in the 2020-21 season. However, there are multiple ways to follow the Falcons this winter...

• TV/VIDEO: All of BGSU's home games, as well as many road contests, will be streamed via ESPN3 or ESPN+.
• RADIO/AUDIO: All BGSU home games and a few road games will have an audio stream thanks to the efforts of the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO).
• LIVE STATS: Live stats will be available for all BGSU games in 2020-21.
• TWITTER: In-game updates, along with key graphics and information, can be found on the BGSU women's basketball twitter account, @BGSUwbb.

Links to any and all ways to follow the Falcons will be available on the schedule page at BGSUFalcons.com on game day.

FOUR-AND-OH FALCONS
• The Falcons enter Saturday's Northern Illinois game with a record of 4-0 in MAC play. BGSU defeated Eastern Michigan (Dec. 11), winning the conference opener for the first time since the 2015-16 season, then topped Miami 11 days later before besting Ball State (Jan. 2) and Western Michigan (Jan. 6) to begin January.

• BG is off to a 4-0 start in the MAC for the first time since 2013-14, when the Falcons also began league action with a 4-0 record. The '13-14 team finished with a 17-1 conference mark and won the MAC regular-season championship.

• The last Falcon team to begin conference play with more than four wins was the 2011-12 team, which got off to a 10-0 start en route to a 14-2 league record and a MAC regular-season title.

NET GAINS
• Monday (Jan. 4) marked the unveiling of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) for women's basketball. The NET replaces RPI as a team sorting tool, and is used to measure a team's quality and help evaluate team resumes for selection and seeding in the NCAA tournament.

• In a nutshell, NET ranking is determined by who you played, where you played, how efficiently you played and the result of the game. The 2020-21 season will be the first year that the Division I Women's Basketball Committee will utilize the NET.

• While it's definitely very, very early in the season, the Falcons were ranked 54th in the first NET listings of the year. As of Thursday morning (the NET is updated daily), BGSU was 56th out of the 340 NCAA Division-I teams who have played at least one game this season.

• Just for comparison's sake, BGSU finished 253rd of 351 teams in the final 2019-20 RPI rankings.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE HUSKIES
• Northern Illinois is 3-5 on the season, and the Huskies are 1-2 in MAC play entering Saturday's game. NIU snapped a four-game losing streak with last weekend's 73-56 win over Western Michigan in DeKalb.

• The BGSU contest marks Northern's first MAC road game of the season, as NIU has also played Toledo and Ohio at home. Wednesday's (Jan. 6) scheduled road game vs. Kent State was postponed.

• Chelby Koker has 20.3 points per game to lead the Huskies, while Janae Poisson has 10.4 ppg. The duo has combined to go 43-of-98 from three-point range this season to date.

• The Huskies are 1-3 at home, 1-2 on the road and 1-0 at neutral sites to date. Head coach Lisa Carlsen welcomed back nine letterwinners, including four starters, from a 2019-20 club that finished 11-19 overall and 7-11 in the MAC.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Northern Illinois, 24-18, in the all-time series, but the Huskies have won the last five meetings, including a narrow 92-87 decision in overtime at the Stroh, in last season's lone matchup.

• BG has won 14 of the last 20 meetings with Northern, and the Falcons are 14-8 in home games, 9-10 on the road and 1-0 in neutral-site contests with the Huskies through the years.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the NIU game, the Falcons will venture to Western New York for a Wednesday (Jan. 13) matchup with Buffalo. That game will begin at 5:00 p.m. at Alumni Arena. Then, BG faces Toledo a week from Saturday (Jan. 16) in the Glass City.

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