Falcons Advance to Semifinals with 70-36 Win over EMU

Wednesday, March 8

Cleveland, Ohio

4:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

26-5,14-4MAC

Eastern Michigan

15-15,7-11MAC

Eastern Mich.

Bowling Green

Photo by: Morgan Holscher, BGSU Athletics

March 08, 2023 | Women's Basketball

Box Score BGSU-EMU Stats Photo Gallery

BGSU holds the Eagles to 2 second-quarter points

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team held Eastern Michigan University to just two points in the second quarter, and the Falcons pulled away for a 70-36 victory Wednesday (March 8). The Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinal-round game was held at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

The Falcons, the tournament's second seed, will face third-seeded Ball State in Friday's (March 10) semifinal round.

Elissa Brett had game-high totals of 16 points and eight rebounds for the Falcons (26-5 [14-4 MAC]), while both Lexi Fleming and Nyla Hampton scored 10 points. Eleven different players scored for the Orange and Brown, with 12 different Falcons dishing out at least one assist.

BGSU led by just a single point, 14-13, after one quarter. But, after committing eight turnovers in the game's first 10 minutes, the Falcons turned the ball over just six times in the final three quarters against the the seventh-seeded Eagles (15-15 [7-11 MAC]).

The Falcons allowed just 23 points over the game's final 30 minutes.

Hampton's corner three on the opening possession of the second period was followed by a Sophie Dziekan layup. Then, after the Eagles countered with a bucket, the Falcons ended the half on a 16-0 run.

Fleming and Allison Day combined to score the first 11 points of that run, and after a Hampton bucket, Jocelyn Tate's three-point play with 5.5 seconds to go gave the Orange and Brown a 35-15 lead at the intermission. Eastern got no closer than 17 points during the second half.

QUOTING COACH ROBYN FRALICK
"This was a great team win. Playing in the MAC Tournament feels different. I thought it took us the first quarter to settle in, but in the second quarter we settled in at both ends of the court. It was just a great defensive effort. Offensively, I thought we stayed with it – we gave ourselves a lot of extra shots and possessions – but defensively, to give up just 36 points took a total team effort. We're really grateful to be able to continue to play."

NOTE OF THE DAY
• Junior Nyla Hampton broke the BGSU single-season record for steals in Wednesday's game. Hampton, the MAC Defensive Player of the Year, now has 93 steals this season. She broke the record of 92, which was set by Talita Scott nearly 30 years ago (1993-04).

ADDITIONAL NOTE OF THE DAY
• Fifth-year Falcon Kadie Hempfling played in the 150th game of her collegiate career on Wednesday, setting a new school record. Hempfling broke the 'old' mark of 149, set last season by Madisen Parker.
• Hempfling made the most of her minutes on Wednesday, with seven points, one rebounds, two assists and a steal in under six minutes of action vs. EMU.

FIRST QUARTER
• The teams combined for 14 turnovers in the first quarter, with the lead changing hands no fewer than nine times. Lexi Fleming hit a three-pointer to give the Falcons an early lead, and after the Eagles countered with a bucket, Jocelyn Tate hit a layup before finding Allison Day for a layup and a 7-4 BG advantage.
• Tayra Eke's second hoop of the game cut the Falcons' lead to one points, and an Irekpitan Ozzy-Momodu layup put the Eagles up, 8-7. Elissa Brett, however, hit a pull-up jumper to snap a BG scoreless streak of nearly three minutes.
• Ozzy-Momodu scored with a shot clock winding down, but Amy Velasco quickly found Brett for a layup. Then, after the Eagles scored again, Velasco's corner three gave the Falcons a 14-12 lead, and BG would never trail again.

SECOND QUARTER
• Nyla Hampton knocked down a corner three on the first possession of the quarter, and Tate's bounce pass found a cutting Sophie Dziekan for a layup and a 19-13 lead. Eke banked a shot off glass and in with 8:05 left in the half, but the Eagles would not score again in the quarter.
• Hampton stole the ball and found Day for a baby hook shot that began a 16-0 run to end the half. Fleming came up with a steal, and the next possession ended with a Fleming three-point play for a 24-15 lead.
• Fleming was fouled and hit a pair of free throws, then tied up Ozzy-Momodu with the possession arrow favoring the Falcons. Day knocked down a a short-corner jumper, then a Day steal led to Fleming's baseline reverse layup.
• Hampton stole the ball – her school-record 93rd steal of the season – and sailed downcourt for an easy layup with just under a minute on the clock. BG forced a miss, and Tate's three-point play with 5.5 seconds remaining gave the Falcons a 35-15 lead at the intermission.
• The Eagles went 1-for-11 from the field with 10 turnovers in the second quarter.

Q: With her steal & layup late in the second quarter, did Nyla Hampton break the BGSU single-season steals record?

A: YES!

She now has 93 steals this season to date. Congrats, Nyla!#AyZiggy | #RiseUp | 🟠🏀🟤
— BGSU WBB (@BGSUwbb) March 8, 2023

THIRD QUARTER
• The teams traded points over the first few minutes of the second half, with the Falcons getting a corner three from Hampton and a driving layup by Brett. Meanwhile, Ozzy-Momodu was whistled for her third and fourth fouls of the game within a 30-second span, picking up her fourth with 7:28 left in the quarter.
• Dziekan's layup gave the Falcons a 42-21 lead, but BG would score only three points over the remaining five-plus minutes of the third quarter. The Falcons allowed just five points during that same time span, and when Day found a cutting Brett for a nifty layup, the Falcons had a 45-26 lead after 30 minutes.

FOURTH QUARTER
•Ozzy-Momodu opened the fourth-period scoring, but Hampton countered with a nifty reverse layup, and Fleming took a charge for Ozzy-Momodu's fifth foul of the game with 8:56 to go.
• Brett then proceeded to score the game's next eight points, with a smooth left-elbow jumper followed by a pair of corner threes in front of her team's bench. She took passes from Olivia Hill and Jasmine Fearne, respectively, to hit shots from almost exactly the same spot. The Falcons' run was 10-0 and the lead was 55-28.
• EMU used a timeout, but the Falcons forced a miss, and Kadie Hempfling's pass resulted in a wide-open layup for Dziekan. Hempfling put back her own miss for a 59-28 BG lead.
• Olivia Smith hit a triple to snap BG's 14-0 run, but Fearne hit Velasco in stride for a bucket, and a long pass from Velasco found Hempfling ahead of the pack for a layup and a 63-31 lead.
• A Hempfling steal led to a Payton Moore bucket, and then Moore threw the ball inside for a Jasmine Clerkley hoop. Emily Siesel grabbed a defensive rebound, brought the ball over midcourt and whipped a pass to Hempfling for a three-pointer that gave the Falcons a 70-34 advantage with 95 seconds to go.

Q: How many BGSU players have now played in 150 career games?

A: Just one!#AyZiggy | #RiseUp | 🟠🏀🟤 pic.twitter.com/WaHmQpQtHy
— BGSU WBB (@BGSUwbb) March 8, 2023

STATS, NOTES & NUMBERS
• The Falcons shot 46.0 percent from the field in the win, while holding EMU to a 31.4% success rate.
• BGSU had a 39-31 rebounding advantage, and the Falcons also had leads in points off turnovers (20-10), points in the paint (38-24), fast-break points (10-7) and bench scoring (23-2).
• BG had a 15-2 lead in points off turnovers in the second quarter alone.

Gallery: (3-8-2023) 030823 wbk v EMU - Morgan Holscher

UP NEXT
• The Falcons, as mentioned, will face Ball State in Friday's (March 10) MAC Tournament semifinal round. That game will begin at approximately 12:30 p.m. at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, and will be streamed on ESPN+.

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