Fleming Goes For 24 and 7 Against #4 Iowa

Saturday, December 2

Iowa City, Iowa

1:30 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

5-2,0-0MAC

Iowa

8-1,0-0Big Ten

Bowling Green

Iowa

Photo by: UI Athletics/Stephen Malley

December 02, 2023 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

But Iowa pulls away with a third-quarter run en route to 99-65 victory

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

IOWA City, Iowa – Lexi Fleming scored 24 points to tie for game honors on Saturday afternoon (Dec. 2), but the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team fell, 99-65, to the nationally-ranked University of Iowa. The non-conference, nationally-televised game took place at a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

On the road against the fourth-ranked team in the country, Fleming fell just two points shy of tying her career high, and the 5-5 guard also led the Falcons (5-2) in rebounding, with seven boards.

Amy Velasco joined Fleming in double digits in the scoring column, with 11 points, and Velasco dished out a team-leading six assists.

Caitlin Clark had 24 points to lead five double-digit scorers for the Hawkeyes (8-1), ranked fourth in the nation in both the Associated Press and USA Today polls.

For the Falcons, Sophie Dziekan and Morgan Sharps each came off the bench to score nine points.

The Hawkeyes used an early run to take a big lead and threatened to run away with Saturday's game, but the Falcons battled back. BGSU matched Iowa bucket-for-bucket for much of the first 30 minutes, before the hosts used another run late in the third quarter to push the margin to 20 for the first time on the afternoon.

BGSU held Clark to just a 2-for-11 effort from three-point range on the day, with the Falcons hitting eight triples to the Hawkeyes' six. But, Iowa had a huge advantage in points in the paint on Saturday afternoon.

What a freaking sequence from Lexi Fleming @BGSUWBB

Nails the sidestep triple, forces the turnover, and cans the trail 3 pic.twitter.com/txhZ6ywEoi
— Mark Schindler (@MG_Schindler) December 2, 2023

THE FLEMING FILE
• Lexi Fleming, as mentioned, had 24 points on Saturday, just two points away from her career high. It marked her third 20-point game of the season and the 11th of her career.

• Fleming has led BGSU in scoring in each of the last five games, and has paced the Falcons in rebounding in three of those five games.

• On the season, she leads the team in scoring (17.9 ppg), rebounding (5.1 rpg) and steals (3.0 spg), and ranks third in assists (3.3 apg).

• Fleming made four three-point field goals in a game for the ninth time in her career. She now has made 129 career triples, and ranks 15th in school history on that list.

• Fleming now has 876 career points in 70 games, an average of 12.5 ppg as a Falcon.

A cinematic recap of the @BGSUWBB trip to Iowa City.#AyZiggy x #onemore pic.twitter.com/BUddqLqiCa
— BGSU Athletics (@BGSU_Athletics) December 6, 2023

NOTEWORTHY
• The Falcons and Iowa played before a sellout crowd of 14,998 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday. That is by far the largest crowd ever to see a BGSU game. The previous record was a throng of 10,048 in a game at Virginia on Dec. 8, 2015.

• For the Falcons, Saturday's Iowa game was the first of what will likely be three games against nationally-ranked teams in the month of December. BGSU hosts South Carolina, currently the number-one team in the nation, on Dec. 19, before heading to Indiana three days later (Dec. 22). The Hoosiers are currently ranked 17th in the country in both polls.

FIRST QUARTER
• The Falcons came up with steals on Iowa's first two possessions of the game, but could not capitalize at the other end, and Caitlin Clark opened the game's scoring with a three-pointer.
• Clark, the consensus national player of the year last season, would make just one more triple in the game, going 2-for-11 from long distance against the BG defense.
• Amy Velasco opened BGSU's scoring with a shot in the paint, and after Molly Davis connected on a long-distance shot for the Hawkeyes, Olivia Hill took a Lexi Fleming pass and knocked down a corner three.
• Iowa's lead was 6-5 with two and a half minutes gone, but the hosts responded with a five-point trip down the floor, as a foul was called on the Falcons after a UI layup, and Clark took an inbounds pass and hit an and-one layup along with the free throw.
• Iowa's run continued with a pair of three-pointers by Gabbie Marshall and a layup from Addison O'Grady that gave the Hawkeyes a 21-5 lead.
• Fleming stopped that run by putting together an impressive sequence. She sidestepped a defender at the top of the arc and drained a three-pointer, then came up with a steal at the other end. Fleming took a return pass from Velasco and knocked down a trailing three to cut the BG deficit to 10, at 21-11.
• Velasco found Sophie Dziekan for a reverse layup, and a Dziekan free throw moments later cut the Iowa lead to single digits.
• The hosts would respond with the next six points, before a Morgan Sharps jumper in the waning seconds made it a 29-16 game after 10 minutes.

SECOND QUARTER
• Paige Kohler hit a turnaround shot on BG's first possession of the quarter, and Fleming knocked down a pair of free throws at the 7:15 mark. Kohler hit a long triple from the right wing, but the Hawkeyes were answering at the other end of the court.
• Fleming came up with a steal and breakaway layup, and Sharps hit a nifty runner, but UI kept hitting shots of their own. A Fleming three-point try with under two minutes to go cut BG's deficit to 48-32 at the half.
• Fleming had a game-high 13 points in the first half, with Clark scoring 12 for the Hawkeyes.

THIRD QUARTER
• Velasco converted a nice driving layup early in the quarter, then scored late in the shot click several minutes later. The junior then found Dziekan for an easy layup off of an inbounds pass.
• The latter bucket was the first of three-straight Dziekan hoops for the visitors. She backed her defender down and scored inside, and after a pair of Fleming free throws, another Dziekan layup made it a 15-point game, at 59-44.
• The Hawkeyes hit from the arc, but Velasco spotted Sharps for a long-range shot that returned the margin to 15. But, the hosts then went on a 10-0 run to end the period. A layup by Sydney Affolter put the margin over 20 points for the first time in the game with under two minutes left in the period, and the Iowa lead was 72-47 after 30 minutes.

FOURTH QUARTER
• Kohler hit a pair of free throws early in the fourth, and Fleming drove the baseline and whipped a sweet pass to a cutting Velasco for a layup. Fleming hit a floater, but the Falcons were unable to keep up with the Iowa offense as the Hawkeyes' lead grew back into the twenties.
• Kohler's 'extra pass' resulted in a Velasco three-pointer, and Fleming hit a long triple off of Hill's pass. Fleming drove and converted a layup by getting the ball to spin over the rim and through the hoop, and the fourth-year Falcon phenom hit another layup in the final minute before a Sharps jumper closed the game's scoring.

STATS, NOTES & NUMBERS
• Iowa shot 66.7 percent from the field in the win, going 42-for-63, whilst BGSU shot 34.3% from the floor.
• The Falcons made eight three-point field goals to the Hawkeyes' six, but Iowa had a huge advantage in points in the paint.
• Both teams made nine free throws, with BG shooting 90% (9-of-10) and Iowa 64.3% (9-for-14).
• Iowa had a 44-27 rebounding advantage, but the Falcons committed one fewer turnover (13) than the Hawkeyes (14) in the contest.

UP NEXT
• The Falcons return to the road to face Wright State on Tuesday, Dec. 12, with that game set for an 11:00 a.m. start.

• Then, BGSU returns home to meet South Carolina the following Tuesday (Dec. 19). The Gamecocks, as mentioned, are currently the number-one team in the nation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION...
• For more information on all things BGSU women's basketball, follow the Falcons on Facebook (@BGWBB), Twitter/X (@BGSU_Athletics and @BGSUWBB) and Instagram (@bgsuwbb), as well as right here at BGSUFalcons.com.