Falcons Face Chippewas as MAC Schedule Kicks into High Gear

Wednesday, January 11

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Central Michigan

Tickets

Allison Day averaged 19.5 ppg & 7.5 rpg in last week's two games

Photo by: Lauren Laudato, BGSU Athletics

January 10, 2023 | Women's Basketball

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BGSU meets CMU Wednesday, on Dollar Night at the Stroh

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

BOWLING GREEN VS. CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Wednesday, January 11, 2023 • 7:00 p.m.
Stroh Center • Bowling Green, Ohio
Video: ESPN+ • Audio: BG Falcon Media
Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com • Twitter: @BGSUwbb

• The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off of a home win over the weekend, returns to the Stroh Center for a midweek matchup. Head coach Robyn Fralick and the Falcons host Central Michigan University on Wednesday evening (Jan. 11), with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

DOLLAR NIGHT
• Wednesday's game is Dollar Night at the Stroh, with tickets, parking and selected concessions items available for just $1.

TICKETS AND PARKING
• Tickets and parking can be purchased BY CLICKING HERE. Credit cards are now being accepted for parking. Cash will continue to be accepted as well. Fans are encouraged to purchase parking passes in advance.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• There are multiple ways to keep up with the Falcons in 2022-23...

• TV/VIDEO: Wednesday's game will be streamed via ESPN+.
• RADIO/AUDIO: All of BGSU's remaining 2022-23 games, both home and away, are slated to have an audio stream thanks to BG Falcon Media (the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization [BGRSO]).
• LIVE STATS: Live stats are scheduled to be available for all BGSU games in 2022-23.
• TWITTER: In-game updates, along with key graphics and information, can be found on the BGSU women's basketball twitter account, @BGSUwbb.

• For all of the pertinent links to any and all ways to follow the Falcons, go to BGSUFalcons.com and navigate your way to the "women's basketball schedule" page on game day.

DOLLAR NIGHT‼️

Come join us at the Stroh on Wednesday night!#AyZiggy | #RiseUp | 🟠🏀🟤 pic.twitter.com/1kTxkjenCZ
— BGSU WBB (@BGSUwbb) January 9, 2023

BRETT APPROACHES A MILESTONE
• Elissa Brett is quickly approaching a milestone. The fourth-year Falcon enters the CMU game needing 24 points to reach the 1,000-point mark for her BGSU career.

• Brett had 20 points in Saturday's (Jan. 7) win over Eastern Michigan, and now ranks 31st in BGSU history in career scoring.

MILLENNIUM FALCONS
• Elissa Brett is looking to become just the 30th player in BGSU history to reach the 1,000-career point mark. Kadie Hempfling reached that plateau last season, and now has 1,249 career points to rank 17th on the school career chart.

• Two other Falcons – Allison Day (1,286) and Payton Moore (1,122) – each have scored more than 1,000 points in their respective collegiate careers. Day and Moore scored the bulk of their points at Loyola Univ. Chicago and Anderson Univ., respectively.

FIVE AND OH AT THE STROH
• BG enters Wednesday's CMU matchup with a record of 5-0 in home games this season. The Falcons have begun the home portion of the schedule with five-straight wins for the first time in four years and the third in the Stroh Center Era.

• The 2018-19 team also started the home schedule with five-straight wins, while both the '19-20 and '20-21 teams had 4-0 starts at the Stroh before dropping game number five.

• The 2013-14 club went 16-0 at home before losing to Rutgers in the fourth round of the WNIT.

A PAIR OF STROH MILESTONES
• Saturday's win over Eastern Michigan was the Falcons' 100th win at the Stroh Center, which opened prior to the 2011-12 season.

• The win was the program's 50th Mid-American Conference victory in the venue, as the Falcons now has 50 MAC regular-season wins and 50 non-conference wins at the Stroh.

WINNING THE TURNOVER BATTLE
• The 2022-23 Falcons have been quite successful at forcing turnovers by the opponents, while keeping their own turnover total to a relative minimum. BGSU has had fewer turnovers than the opponent in all 14 games this season to date, and the Falcons are second in the entire nation in turnover margin.

• BG has turned the ball over 17 times or fewer in each game, while forcing the opposition into at least 16 turnovers in every game. The Falcons have averaged 12.07 turnovers, while the foes have turned the ball over 22.36 times per game.

• BGSU committed just seven turnovers in the home opener against Wright State, tied for the fourth-lowest single-game total in school history, and the Falcons had just 10 turnovers in the win over Detroit Mercy, 11 at ETSU, nine against both IUPUI and UTRGV and eight vs. Findlay.

• Through 14 games, the Falcons have outscored the opponents, 331-143, in points off turnovers.

HAMPTON = DEFENSE
• Nyla Hampton had 86 steals last season, the fourth-highest total in BGSU history. She ranked second in the MAC and 17th in the nation in that category. With 2.69 steals per contest, Hampton finished third in the league and 23rd in the country.

• This season, Hampton has a team-high 49 steals through 14 games. She tied her career high with six steals in this year's opener at SBU, had five against both Wright State and IUPUI and again tied her career standard with six in the Eastern Michigan game. Hampton, who had at least three steals in a game 17 times last year, has had at least four steals in eight of this year's 14 games.

• Currently, she ranks eighth in the nation in steals per game (3.50) and 10th in the country in total steals. She leads the MAC in both categories.

• Hampton now has 191 steals in 70 career games played, an average of 2.73 per game. She has moved into a tied for 11th place on the BGSU career list for total steals, and is just two shy of joining the top 10.

• Hampton is on pace to set the school career records for both total steals and steals per contest.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 12-2 on the season, and BGSU enters Wednesday's Central Michigan matchup with a record of 1-1 in MAC play. The Falcons saw a nine-game winning streak come to an end last Wednesday (Jan. 4), with an 81-73 loss at Ball State, but bounced back with Saturday's (Jan. 7) 79-63 home win over Eastern Michigan.

• The BSU game marked the Falcons' first setback since Nov. 17. BGSU won the nine games during the streak by an average of 26.44 points per game.

• After posting double-digit wins over St. Bonaventure and Wright State to begin the season, the Falcons fell to then-#9/12 (and now #6/7) Indiana, 96-61, in Bloomington.

• BG's nine-game win streak began with victories at Southern Indiana and at home vs. Northern Kentucky and Detroit Mercy. The NKU matchup was the Falcons' only single-digit decision of the season prior to the Ball State game.

• Then, the Falcons went a perfect 6-0 in the month of December, with the first five of those wins coming away from home. BG posted double-digit victories at Valparaiso (92-61), ETSU (82-64), IUPUI (84-70), Texas A&M-Commerce (90-61) and UTRGV (71-47). The latter two wins came at the UTRGV South Padre Island Classic.

• The Falcons ended non-conference play with a 92-51 win over Findlay at the Stroh Center last Friday afternoon (Dec. 30).

• Head coach Robyn Fralick and her staff welcomed back a total of 10 student-athletes from a year ago. That group includes four starters from the 2021-22 season, plus a fifth player who started in 2020-21 before missing all of '21-22 due to injury.

• Last season, the Falcons – despite losing nearly 75 player-games to injury – won 17 games and advanced to national postseason play for the second-straight season. BGSU went 17-16 overall and 10-10 in Mid-American Conference play, and the Falcons were selected to participate in the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI). BG went 2-1 in that tourney, finishing the '21-22 season with a victory.

• Kadie Hempfling returned for a fifth year with the Falcons after starting all 33 games last winter. Nyla Hampton and Amy Velasco made 32 and 30 starts, respectively, while Elissa Brett started 26 contests in 2021-22.

• BGSU's top-five scorers from a year ago – Hempfling (11.7 ppg), Velasco (10.8), Brett (10.7), Morgan Sharps (9.5) and Hampton (8.4) – all returned. Brett paced last year's team in rebounding (6.0 rpg), while Jocelyn Tate (6.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg) was second on the team in that category.

• Other returnees from last year's squad include Sophie Dziekan (2.5 ppg) and Olivia Hill (0.8 ppg). Jasmine Clerkley played in the first three games of 2021-22 before missing the remainder of the season due to injury, while Lexi Fleming – the 2020-21 MAC Freshman of the Year – was injured prior to the start of the season and missed the entire '21-22 campaign.

• Five newcomers, including a pair of transfers, joined the 10 returnees. Allison Day played four seasons at Loyola Chicago, where she started 97 games and had totals of 1,139 points and 645 rebounds.

• Payton Moore is also in her first season with the Falcons, but her fifth as a collegian. Moore played in 78 games, starting 60, at Anderson (Ind.) University, where she had 1,111 career points along with 701 rebounds.

• Three freshman joined the Falcons for the 2022-23 campaign. That group includes Jasmine Fearne (Cairns, Australia), Emily Siesel (New Washington, Ohio) and Jaci Tubergen (Hudsonville, Mich.).

• Entering the CMU matchup, no Falcon is scoring as many as 13 points per game, but no fewer than six players are averaging at least 8.8 ppg. Hampton leads that balanced scoring attack with 12.9 ppg, and she is shooting a MAC-leading 56.4 percent from the field. Hampton also paces the Falcons in assists (3.6 apg), steals (3.5 spg) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.63).

• Brett and Sharps have 12.5 and 10.8 ppg, respectively. Brett, who had 20 points in the win over EMU, is second on the team in rebounding as well as scoring, with 5.5 boards per contest. Sharps has hit a team-leading 35 three-pointers and is shooting 40.7% from the arc.

• Day and Tate have 10.5 and 9.4 ppg, with Fleming averaging 8.8 ppg off the bench. Day had a monster game at Ball State, with 18 points and a BG season-high 12 rebounds, and followed that up with a 21-point performance vs. EMU. She went 10-for-12 from the floor vs. the Eagles, and is shooting 55.2% this winter to date. Tate leads the Orange and Brown with 6.3 rpg and is third on the team in assists (2.6 apg).

• Dziekan and Velasco have 6.1 and 5.0 ppg, respectively. Velasco is second on the Falcons with 2.9 apg, while Dzieken is shooting 60.7% from the field, having gone 37-for-61 this year to date.

• Hempfling, a four-year starter before transitioning to a role off the bench in 2022-23, is shooting nearly 60% from the field this year. She is 9-for-18 from the arc.

• Brett, Day, Hampton, Sharps and Tate each have started all 14 games this season, and all five are averaging between 22.5 and 26.4 minutes per game.

• BGSU is +18.4 in scoring margin, +1.6 in rebounding margin and +10.3 in turnover margin this season to date. The Falcons are second in the entire nation in the latter category.

• In fact, the Falcons lead the MAC in 10 statistical categories, and BG is ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation in 10 categories.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE CHIPPEWAS
• Central Michigan is 3-10 on the season, and the Chippewas are 1-1 in MAC play heading into Wednesday's contest at the Stroh. Central picked up a 17-point win over Northern Illinois, 79-62, in the conference opener, before dropping a narrow 70-63 decision at Buffalo Saturday.

• Individually, Sydney Harris leads the team in scoring, with 16.4 points per game, and she leads the entire MAC in three-point field goals per game, having gone 42-of-116 from the arc to date. Bridget Utberg and Rochelle Norris are averaging 9.8 and 8.3 ppg, respectively. Norris is averaging a double-double in MAC play, with 21.0 ppg and 12.5 rpg last week, and she shot an otherworldly 90 percent from the floor (18-of-20) in the two conference contests.

• Head coach Heather Oesterle's club is just one win away from matching both the overall and league win totals for all of last season. Oesterle welcomed back five letterwinners, including three starters, from a 2021-22 team that went 4-25 overall and 2-18 in the MAC.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Central Michigan, 49-23, in the all-time series, and the Falcons captured last season's lone meeting, with a 92-68 victory at the Stroh Center (Jan. 19, 2022). BGSU also won the previous year's regular-season matchup, which also took place at the Stroh (76-67 on Feb. 17, 2021), but the Chippewas downed the Falcons, 77-72, in the MAC Tournament championship game the following month (March 13, 2022) in downtown Cleveland. Central had won six-straight series matchups, prior to BG taking two of the last three.

• The Falcons are 27-7 at home (4-3 at the Stroh), 18-11 on the road and 4-5 at neutral sites vs. CMU through the years.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following Wednesday's CMU clash, the Falcons will head to Akron to meet the Zips on Saturday (Jan 14), with tipoff set for 2:00 p.m. at James A. Rhodes Arena.

• The Orange and Brown will then return home for the next two contests, facing Toledo (Wednesday, Jan. 18) and Kent State (Saturday, Jan. 21) at the Stroh.