Bright Lights, B!G City: BGSU Hosts Ball State in Nationally-Televised Showdown

Wednesday, March 1

Bowling Green, Ohio

5:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Ball State

Tickets

MC-41687 - Women's Basketball vs Bowling Green

Photo by: Samantha Blankenship, Ball State Athletics

Bright Lights, B!G City: BGSU Hosts Ball State in Nationally-Televised Showdown

February 28, 2023 | Women's Basketball

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Falcons meet Cardinals in 5:00 p.m. start on Wednesday at the Stroh

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

BOWLING GREEN VS. BALL STATE
Wednesday, March 1, 2023 • 5:00 p.m.
Stroh Center • Bowling Green, Ohio
TV/Video: ESPNU • Audio: BG Falcon Media
Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com • Twitter: @BGSUwbb

• The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team enters the final week of the regular-season schedule embroiled in a three-team race at the top of the Mid-American Conference standings. Head coach Robyn Fralick and the Falcons face the other two teams in that three-team logjam this week, beginning with a Wednesday (March 1) matchup with Ball State University. That contest begins at 5:00 p.m., at the Stroh Center, and will be televised nationally on ESPNU, with Brenda VanLengen and Mike Thibault on the call.

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

• TV/VIDEO: Wednesday's BSU game will be nationally televised on ESPNU and 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.

TOLEDO TICKETS
INFO	Falcon fans can purchase tickets for the March 4 game at Toledo through the BGSU ticket office for just $10. The deadline to purchase is Wednesday, March 1.
TICKETS	CLICK HERE
MAC TOURNAMENT TICKETS
INFO	Tickets for the MAC Tournament quarterfinal (Wed., March 8) at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland can be purchased through the BGSU ticket office for just $10.
TICKETS	CLICK HERE
Go Falcons! #AyZiggy \| #RiseUp

A TIGHT RACE AT THE TOP
• Despite an 84-66 loss to Buffalo on Saturday (Feb. 25), the Falcons enter the final week of the regular season in control of their own destiny. BGSU and Ball State each are 13-3 in the MAC, and are tied for second place. Toledo, after a win over BSU Saturday, is at the top of the standings with a 14-2 league ledger.

• The Falcons, Rockets and Cardinals will be the first through third seeds, in some order, for next week's MAC Tournament. If BGSU defeats BSU on Wednesday, the Falcons will clinch no worse than the number-two seed.

• And, if BGSU were to win both games this week – vs. BSU Wednesday and at Toledo Saturday – the Falcons would clinch at least a share of the regular-season title and would be the number-one seed for the league tourney.

• BGSU lost this season's first meeting with Ball State (81-73, on Jan. 4 in Muncie), but the Falcons defeated UT (88-76; Jan. 18) at the Stroh. UT swept the two regular-season meetings between the Rockets and BSU.

NOW THAT'S A TURNAROUND!
• The Falcons went 19-42 overall and 5-31 in MAC play in head coach Robyn Fralick's first two seasons at the helm, as she and her staff were recruiting the bulk of the current team and implementing their culture and style of play.

• It's safe to say that Fralick and her staff were successful. Over the last two-plus years, the Falcons are 62-28 overall and 37-17 in league regular-season action.

BRIGHT LIGHTS, B!G CITY
• The Falcons' game vs. Ball State on Wednesday (March 1), as mentioned, has been selected by ESPN for a national broadcast. The game will air on ESPNU, with the start time set for 5:00 p.m. (5:02 p.m., to be exact).

• The BSU game will be BGSU's first nationally-televised contest since the 2021 MAC Tournament championship game, which was aired by CBS Sports Network (March 13, 2021). It will be the Falcons' first regular-season game to be televised nationally in over 14 years, since a game at Western Michigan aired on ESPNU on Feb. 7, 2009.

National TV ☑️
Live DJ ☑️
Free Pizza ☑️
Great Prizes ☑️

Stroh Center | Wednesday | 5pm pic.twitter.com/2r3xIQg9o2
— BGSU Athletics Marketing (@BGScreechTeam) February 27, 2023

WINNING THE TURNOVER BATTLE
• The Falcons have won the turnover battle more often than not – MUCH more often than not – this season. BGSU has committed fewer turnovers than the opponents in 26 of this season's 28 games.

• A few recent examples ... BG turned the ball over just nine times at Kent State (Feb. 11), forcing the Flashes into 19 turnovers. Then, over the next four games, BG was +9 in the turnover department vs. NIU (Feb. 15), +13 at Western Michigan (Feb. 18), +16 at Central Michigan (Feb. 22) and +14 on Saturday vs. Buffalo.

• The Falcons have played 16 MAC games to date, and have forced the opposition into 20 or more turnovers in 10 of those 16 games.

• In fact, over the last eight contests, BGSU has turned the ball over 101 times (12.6 per game), while the opponents have had 195 turnovers (24.4 per game).

• Entering the BSU game, the Falcons are ranked second in the entire nation in turnover margin (+9.36), and BGSU is sixth in the country in turnovers forced per game (21.93) and eighth in assist/turnover ratio (1.37).

• BGSU has forced the opposition into at least 15 turnovers in all 28 games, and the Falcons have had a single-digit turnover total nine times this season to date.

• And, BG has turned those opponent turnovers into buckets. Through 28 games, the Falcons have outscored the foes, 670-283, in points off turnovers – an average of 23.9 points for, and just 10.1 points against, per game.

YET ANOTHER MILESTONE WITHIN REACH FOR HEMPFLING
• Kadie Hempfling's name can be found on multiple lists in the BGSU record book, and the fifth-year Falcon is poised to move to the top of one of those lists on Wednesday evening. Hempfling has played in a total of 149 games in a BGSU uniform. The next time she takes the floor, she will move past her former teammate, Madisen Parker, for the most games played in program history.

• And, Hempfling's name can be found on many other BGSU lists. Entering the BSU contest, Hempfling sits in 16th place on the BGSU career scoring list, with 1,263 points as a Falcon. Additionally, she ranks fifth in school history in career games started, sixth in assists, eighth in rebounds and 13th in three-pointers made.

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

• This season, Hampton has a team-high 85 steals, giving her two of the top-five single-season totals in program history. She had at least three steals in a game 17 times last year, and this season, she has had at least four steals on 12 occasions. That includes seven contests with at least five steals.

• Hampton, who had a career-high seven steals at WMU, currently ranks 10th in the nation in total steals and 12th in the country in steals per game (3.04). She leads the MAC in both categories.

• Hampton is on pace to shatter the school records for total steals and steals per game in a career. She now has 227 steals in 84 career games played. In just her third year with the Falcons, she has moved into third place on the BGSU career steals list.

• Her average of 2.70 career steals per game puts her on pace to obliterate that school record – no other Falcon has had more than 2.19 career spg. All of the aforementioned lists are on page 8 of the PDF version of these notes.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE CARDINALS
• Ball State is 23-6 on the season, and the Cardinals – like the Falcons – are 13-3 in the MAC. BSU is tied with BGSU for second place in the league, one game behind Toledo.

• BSU won 10-straight games from mid-January through mid-February, but the Cardinals have lost two of the last three contests. Most recently, BSU lost a narrow 72-70 decision to visiting Toledo on Saturday (Feb. 25).

• Individually, Anna Clephane leads a balanced scoring attack with 14.9 ppg, while Thelma Dis Agustsdottir and Ally Becki have 12.2 and 11.4 ppg, respectively. Dis Agustsdottir has made 91 three-point field goals this season, while Becki leads the Cardinals with 5.9 rpg and 5.3 apg.

• Head coach Brady Sallee's team is 14-1 at home, 8-4 on the road and 1-1 in neutral-site games this season. In MAC play, BSU went 8-1 at home, and the Cards enter the BG game with a 5-2 road mark. Sallee welcomed back four starters from a 2021-22 club that went 20-13 overall and 11-8 in the MAC.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Ball State, 46-26, in the all-time series, but the Cards have captured the last two meetings, both at Worthen Arena. Most recently, BSU topped the Falcons, 81-73, in this season's MAC opener in Muncie (Jan. 4, 2023). The last meeting in the Stroh saw BGSU pick up an 82-58 win on Jan. 1, 2022.

• The Falcons are 25-7 at home, 19-16 on the road and 2-3 at neutral sites vs. the Cardinals through the years.

• More information on the BGSU-BSU series can be found on page 34 of the PDF version of these very notes, with the box score and a few notes from the teams' first 2022-23 meeting available on page 20.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following Wednesday's BSU game, the Falcons will end the regular season by making a short trip north to face Toledo on Saturday afternoon (March 4). That contest will begin at 2:00 p.m. at Savage Arena.

• BGSU then will prepare for the MAC Tournament, which begins next Wednesday (March 8), with quarterfinal-round matchups at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in downtown Cleveland. The Falcons' quarterfinal-round opponent and tipoff time are TBA, and will be determined by the outcomes of this week's games around the conference.