Falcons Tame Wolf Pack to End 2021-22 on Winning Note

Sunday, March 20

Lexington, KY

5:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

17-16,10-10MAC

Nevada

20-13,11-6Mountain West

Nevada

Bowling Green

Madisen Parker made the 251st, 252nd & 253rd three-point field goals of her storied career on Sunday

Photo by: Stephen Linsky, BGSU Athletics

March 20, 2022 | Women's Basketball

Box Score BGSU-Nevada Stats Support Our Student-Athletes

BGSU hits SEVEN 3-pointers in third quarter to stave off Nevada comeback bid

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Athletics

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team ended the 2021-22 season on a winning note, topping Nevada by a 73-65 final on Sunday evening (March 20). The win came in the third-place match at the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI), inside the Clive M. Beck Center on the campus of Transylvania University.

Kadie Hempfling led all players with 19 points, going 6-for-8 from the field including a 3-for-4 performance from three-point range. Elissa Brett had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Falcons (17-16), while Morgan Sharps scored 11 points and Madisen Parker and Jocelyn Tate nine apiece.

Tate had a game-high 11 rebounds, while Hempfling added six assists and three steals to her impressive stat line.

Nevada (20-13) had three players in double figures, led by Da'Ja Hamilton with 15 points.

The Falcons led for over 36 minutes on Sunday, and BGSU led by as many as 16 points late in the first half. But, the Wolf Pack scored the final six points of the second quarter, then crept as close as five points on two occasions in the third period.

Sharps answered the first Nevada run with a three-pointer, and after the Wolf Pack got to within five once again, Kenzie Lewis knocked down a shot from behind the arc.

The Falcons hit no fewer than seven three-pointers in the third quarter, with the last one coming as the horn sounded. That triple, by Parker, gave the Orange and Brown a 60-48 lead after 30 minutes.

The lead grew as high as 15 points in the fourth quarter, and remained in double digits for most of the period, until a late Nevada surge produced the final eight-point margin.

The Falcons had a 38-24 rebounding advantage on Sunday, with a 13-2 lead in second-chance points, and the BGSU bench scored 26 points to the Wolf Pack's 21.

BGSU hit 12 three-pointers in the win, with Hempfling, Parker and Sharps each making three long-distance tries.

NOTE OF THE NIGHT
• Fifth-year Falcon Madisen Parker made three three-point field goals in her final game to cap a stellar career. Parker finished with a career total of 253 three-pointers made, and ranks second on that BGSU career list.
• Parker, the school record-holder in career games played, ended her career with 988 points in 149 contests.

BONUS NOTE OF THE NIGHT
• As a team, the Falcons made 272 three-point field goals in 2021-22, the second-highest total in program history.
• The 2009-10 team holds the record with a total of 284 three-pointers made.

QUOTING COACH FRALICK
"This was a great win to finish the season. I was proud of our enthusiasm and our 'teamness' tonight. I'm so grateful for Madisen Parker and Molly Dever. They poured their heart and soul into our program, and their impact on our program will be felt forever."

SUNDAY'S WBI SCORES
Furman 69, Northeastern 61 – seventh-place game
Davidson 66, Austin Peay 58 – fifth-place game
Bowling Green 73, Nevada 65 – third-place game
Saint Mary's 80, Cleveland State 73 – championship

FIRST QUARTER
• In a harbinger of things to come, Kadie Hempfling scored the Falcons' first points of the day, taking a lob from Elissa Brett and hitting a layup. When Madisen Parker spotted Amy Velasco for a three-pointer, BG had an early 5-3 lead.
• The Wolf Pack responded with four-straight points, taking the lead on a steal and layup by Audrey Roden, but Hempfling countered with a layup after a nifty spin move to tie the game at 7-7. Morgan Sharps hit a pair of free throws, and after Kaylee Borden knocked down a three-point try, Jocelyn Tate lost her would-be defender with a smooth spin move, laying the ball up and in for an 11-10 lead midway through the quarter. The Falcons would not trail again.
• Hempfling's 'and-1' layup and free throw gave BG a four-point advantage, and moments later, she took a pass from Sharps and knocked down a three-point try for a 17-12 lead.Hempfling then proceeded to come up with a steal, draw a foul and hit a free throw to give her 11 points in the game's first six-plus minutes.
• It was Tate's turn to take over, as she hit layups on back-to-back BG possessions while grabbing defensive rebounds after Nevada misses on back-to-back trips. Tate's two buckets gave the Falcons a 22-14 lead after 10 minutes.
• Hempfling and Tate combined for 17 points on 7-of-7 shooting in the first quarter.

SECOND QUARTER
• The lead reached double digits when the seas parted for Kenzie Lewis, who hit a driving layup just before the shot clock expired. Alyssa Jimenez answered with a quick three-pointer, but Parker found Hempfling for a quick triple at the other end, giving BG a 27-17 lead.
• Nyla Hampton's inbounds pass found a cutting Brett for a layup and a 30-19 lead, and Lewis hit Sharps for a left-side three-pointer and a 33-19 advantage with 5:24 left before halftime. That would be the last successful field goal by either team for nearly four minutes.
• Kylie Jimenez broke a scoring drought of 5:40 for her team, hitting a three-pointer after a pair of Brett free throws had given the Falcons a game-high 16-point lead. Jimenez capped her own personal 5-0 run with a driving layup, but Velasco came right back, taking the ball the length of the court for a layup. That was BGSU's first field goal in 4:24.
• The Falcons had five steals in the second quarter alone, and BG nearly forced a sixth, but Da'Ja Hamilton ended a broken play by throwing in a three-point try that cut the Falcons' lead to 10 points at the half.
• Hempfling had 14 first-half points on 5-of-5 shooting, as the Falcons shot 50 percent (13-of-26) from the field as a team in the first 20 minutes. BG also had nine steals and an 18-12 rebounding advantage in the opening half.

THIRD QUARTER
• Hempfling found Parker for a three-pointer with just over a minute gone in the period, but that was the Falcons' only scoring in the first three-and-a-half minutes. Nevada began the quarter on an 8-3 run, with a Hamilton free throw cutting BGSU's lead to five, at 40-35.
• But, BG answered the Wolf Pack's 6-0 run with a quick six-point run. To be more precise, Morgan Sharps answered the Wolf Pack's 6-0 run with a quick six-point run. The sophomore sharpshooter hit a pair of three-pointers just over a minute apart, giving the Falcons an 11-point lead. Hempfling assisted on both buckets, including a long pass to a wide-open Sharps for the second hoop as BGSU broke the Nevada press.
• Back came Nevada, with Nia Alexander hitting a layup and Alyssa Jimenez knocking down a three, but Hempfling found Parker for a three-ball from the left wing. Four quick points from the Wolf Pack cut BG's lead to 49-44, but Hempfling once again found a teammate for a triple. This time, it was Lewis who knocked down a long-distance try to give BG an eight-point lead.
• Parker's inbounds pass near midcourt sent Brett ahead of the pack (the Pack) for a layup and a 54-44 lead. Hamilton converted a pair of free throws, but after a Tate offensive rebound, the freshman found Brett for a three-pointer, and after Hamilton hit a driving layup for Nevada, Hampton got the ball to Parker for a buzzer-beating triple, giving the Orange and Brown a 60-48 lead.
• BGSU went 7-for-15 from three-point range and 1-of-2 from inside the arc in the third period.

FOURTH QUARTER
• Hampton's layup on the opening possession gave the Falcons a 14-point lead, and when Tate round Hempfling for a corner three, BGSU led by a 65-50 score. Hamilton answered with a three-pointer just 18 seconds later, before a four-minute stretch of scoreless basketball.
• The next point came via a Lewis free throw at the 3:22 mark. In fact, BGSU would make just one field goal over the game's final 7:38, but the Falcons went 6-for-8 from the free-throw line over that final 3:22, and the BG defense held the Wolf Pack without a point for a span of 4:25.
• Nevada cut the BGSU lead to eight points with 1:46 to go, but Brett hit a pair of charity tosses at the 59.3-second mark, and after Hamilton converted a layup, the Falcons used nearly all of the shot clock before Lewis found an open Tate for a layup with 27.4 seconds to go. Borden closed the scoring with a layup that cut the final margin to single digits.

STATS, NOTES & NUMBERS
• The Wolf Pack shot 47.3% to BGSU's 43.6%, as both teams attempted 55 field goals with Nevada making two more (26 to 24) than the Falcons. But, BG knocked down 12 three-pointers and went 13-of-17 at the free-throw line, while Nevada hit nine triples and attempted just six free throws, making four.
• BGSU held a 38-26 lead on the boards. The Falcons had 12 offensive rebounds and a 13-2 lead in second-chance points.
• Molly Dever played in her 57th career game on Sunday. The Falcons went 9-21 in 2018-19, her freshman season, and Dever missed the '19-20 campaign due to injury. But, she helped BGSU post an overall record of 38-24 over the last two seasons.
• Elissa Brett went over the 800-point mark for her career on Sunday night, and finishes the 2021-22 season with 801 points and 530 rebounds as a Falcon.
• Nyla Hampton finished the season with 86 steals, the fourth-highest total in school history and just six away from Talita Scott's school record. Her average of 2.69 steals per game ranks fifth on that school single-season list.
• Kadie Hempfling finishes the 2021-22 campaign with career totals of 1,206 points, 773 rebounds and 420 assists. She is ranked on the BGSU career lists in all three of those categories, as well as games started (122) and three-point field goals made (131).
• Kenzie Lewis has 206 assists in two years as a Falcon, and is on pace to finish her career in the top-10 on that BGSU list.
• Madisen Parker is the school record-holder with 149 games played, and ends her BGSU career ranked second on three career lists – three-point field goals made (253), three-point percentage (43.3%) and free-throw pct. (89.1%; 131-of-147). Parker had 988 points, 299 rebounds and 118 assists in her career.
• Morgan Sharps hit a team-leading 72 three-pointers this season, and shot 44.2% from the arc to rank among the national leaders. She led the Falcons with 16.0 points per game in the three WBI games.
• Jocelyn Tate and Amy Velasco combined for 553 points in their freshman season. Tate led the Falcons in rebounding (8.0 rpg) in the three games in Lexington, while Velasco tied Lewis for the team assists lead in the WBI contests.

UP NEXT
• Sunday's game concluded the 2021-22 season. After the Falcons posted an overall record of 19-42 in head coach Robyn Fralick's first two seasons at the helm, BGSU has gone 38-24 over the last two seasons.
• The Falcons won a total of 20 Mid-American Conference games in the six-year period from 2014-15 through '19-20, going 20-88 in that time. In the last two seasons, however, BGSU has posted a 24-14 record in MAC play.
• Log on to BGSUFalcons.com for all of the latest news and updates re: the women's basketball Falcons.

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