BGSU Returns to the Road for Tuesday Tussle in Cleveland

Tuesday, November 12

Cleveland, Ohio

7 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Cleveland State

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Johnea Donahue at Detroit Mercy - Nov. 8, 2024

Photo by: Brenna Orton, BGSU Athletics

November 11, 2024 | Women's Basketball

BGSU Notes CSU Women's Basketball Support BGSUWBB 2024-25 Record Book

Falcons face Preseason Horizon League favorite CSU

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

Tuesday, Nov. 12 | 7:00 p.m. | Wolstein Center | Cleveland, Ohio

BOWLING GREEN
FALCONS
(1-1, 0-0 MAC)

CLEVELAND STATE
VIKINGS
(1-1, 0-0 HORIZON)


WATCH : ESPN+ \| LISTEN : BG Falcon Media \| LIVE STATS : View \| TWITTER/X: @BGSUwbb \| INSTAGRAM: bgsuwbb

OPENING TIP
• The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team hits the road to face a Horizon League opponent for the second consecutive game. Head coach Fred Chmiel and the Falcons travel to Northeast Ohio for a Tuesday (Nov. 12) meeting with Cleveland State University. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Wolstein Center.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• There are many ways to keep up with the Falcons in 2024-25...

• TV/VIDEO: Tuesday's CSU matchup will be streamed via ESPN+.
• RADIO/AUDIO: The CSU contest, as is the case for all of BGSU's 2024-25 games, is scheduled to have an audio stream thanks to BG Falcon Media Sports.
• LIVE STATS: Live stats are scheduled to be available for all games in '24-25.
• TWITTER/X & THE 'GRAM: In-game updates, along with other key information, can be found on the BGSU women's basketball Twitter/X account (@BGSUWBB), with periodic updates on the program's Instagram account (bgsuwbb) as well.

• 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.

AMY ACCUMULATES ASSISTS
• Amy Velasco reached a career milestone late last season, dishing out the 300th assist of her career. Velasco became just the 11th player in school history to reach the 300-assist plateau.

• Then, in the Falcons' very next game (on Feb. 10, 2024), Velasco handed out seven more assists, moving past Judit Lendvay (304 assists from 1989-93) into 10th place on the BGSU career assists list.

• Entering the Cleveland State game, Velasco now has 356 career assists. She recently moved past Cathy Koch (347 assists from 1988-92) into sole possession of ninth place on the BGSU career list. Her next targets are Jaymee Wappes (1996-2000) and Tracy Pontius (2007-11), who dished out 387 assists each.

• Velasco currently ranks seventh in BGSU history in assists per game, with 3.46. The complete lists of both career assists and assists per game can be found on page 7 of the PDF version of these notes.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 1-1 on the young season. BGSU picked up a 71-67 win over Southern Miss on Monday night (Nov. 4) at the Stroh Center, but fell, 73-66, at Detroit Mercy in Friday's (Nov. 8) road opener.

• Three players are scoring in double digits through two games, with a total of five Falcons averaging at least nine points per game. Senior Amy Velasco leads the way with 15.5 ppg, and she also paces the Falcons with 4.5 assists per contest.

• Sophomores Paige Kohler and Taya Ellis have 13.0 and 11.0 ppg, respectively. Kohler leads the team with a 52.6% field-goal percentage, while Ellis tops the Falcons in both rebounds (9.0 rpg) and blocked shots (2.5 bpg).

• Freshman Lauren Gerken and fifth-year collegian Erika Porter have 9.5 and 9.0 ppg, respectively, to date. Gerken is second on the team in rebounding, with 6.5 rpg.

• Freshman Johnea Donahue has 6.0 ppg and leads BGSU with 4.0 steals per game.

• The Falcons returned seven players who saw action on the 2023-24 team that went 16-15 overall and 10-8 in MAC play. BG won four of the last six regular-season games, and the Falcons advanced to national postseason play with trip to the WNIT.

• BGSU was picked to finish fourth in the MAC in the preseason coaches poll last season. Despite losing more than 120 player-games due to injury in 2023-24, the Falcons finished the regular season in a tie for fourth in the conference.

• BG was 8-5 at home, 6-9 on the road and 2-1 at neutral sites last season. In MAC play, the Falcons went 6-3 at the Stroh and 4-5 away from home.

• The Falcons rallied to beat Cleveland State in last year's season opener en route to a 5-1 start. BG had four-straight wins, downing Xavier, Mercer, Lehigh and Duquesne. The latter game was a 68-66 win on Velasco's buzzer-beater at the Stroh.

• BGSU went 1-3 last December, with all three losses coming to nationally-ranked teams (#4/4 Iowa, #1/1 South Carolina and #16/15 Indiana), prior to beginning MAC play.

• A total of 14 Falcons saw action last season, but only eight of the 14 players who began the season on the roster suited up for the last 10 games of the year.

• Five players scored in double digits a year ago, and four of those five return. Fifth-year Falcon Lexi Fleming, one of the many injured players, averaged 31.4 mpg over the first 10 contests of the season, before leaving the Indiana game (Dec. 22). Fleming also had averages of 15.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game, and led the Falcons in all three categories at the time of her injury. She was averaging 16.7 ppg prior to that IU game, in which she played just 1:10.

• The graduated Morgan.Sharps had 15.1 ppg and led the team with 84 three-point field goals made, while Velasco and Porter scored 14.5 and 12.6 ppg, respectively. Kohler had 10.9 ppg in her freshman campaign.

• Velasco paced BG (and ranked third in the MAC) with 4.7 assists per game, followed by Kohler (3.1 apg; seventh in the MAC).

• Kohler and Velasco each started all 31 games last year, while Porter started 24.

• Velasco led the Falcons – and the MAC – in assists in league games (5.3 apg), and also paced BG in steals (1.6 spg). Porter shot a team- and MAC-best 68.2% from the floor, setting a new school single-season record for highest field-goal pct. in MAC games. And, it was the second-highest average in MAC history.

• BGSU's other returnees from last season are junior Emily Siesel and sophomores Ellis and Keiryn McGuff. Siesel played in 26 games off the bench last winter, while Ellis saw action in 29 and ranked second on the team blocked shots behind Porter. McGuff played in 16 games, making two starts, before suffering an injury in January and missing the rest of the season.

• Third-year Falcon Jasmine Fearne is back after missing the entire '23-24 campaign due to injury.

• The Falcons' seven newcomers include a pair of junior-college transfers in Kristiana Kulackovska and Kendal Moxey, along with five freshmen – Donahue, Gerken, Laila Harrison, Brook Simpson and Taylor Wallace.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE VIKINGS
• Cleveland State is 1-1 on the young season, with a loss at Ohio State and a 111-67 win at Chicago State. Mickayla Perdue is averaging 30.0 ppg through two games.

• The Vikings were picked to win the Horizon League in 2024-25, with Colbi Maples named the league's Preseason Player of the Year and Perdue and Destiny Leo joining her on the Preseason All-HL team. Leo was the league's Player of the Year in 2022-23 before missing most of last season due to injury. Maples earned HL Player-of-the-Year honors in '23-24, with Perdue named the league's Newcomer of the Year.

• Head coach Chris Kielsmeier welcomed back a total of nine letterwinners from last year's team that went 29-6 overall and 18-2 in the Horizon League. CSU was a perfect 17-0 last season, going 9-4 on the road and 3-2 at neutral sites. The Vikings advanced to the WBIT.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Cleveland State, 11-5, in the all-time series, and BGSU has won the last two meetings. Last season saw the Falcons capture a win, 89-86, in a wild game at the Stroh Center (Nov. 7, 2023).

• Tuesday marks BGSU's first trip to the Wolstein Center since December of 2002. The teams did play a regular-season contest in downtown Cleveland – at then-Quicken Loans Arena – in December of 2015. The Falcons are 8-2 at home (2-1 at the Stroh Center) and 3-3 on the road vs. CSU through the years. Additional series information can be found on page 6 of the PDF.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following Tuesday's game in Cleveland, BGSU returns home to meet St. Bonaventure on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 16). That contest tips at 12:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

• The SBU game will be BGSU's last home action for three weeks, as the Falcons will hit the road to play West Virginia (Nov. 19) and Ohio State (Nov. 24) before traveling to Florida for the Daytona Beach Classic. BGSU will meet Stetson (Nov. 29) and Arkansas (Dec. 30) in that tournament.

FOR MORE INFORMATION...
For more information on BGSU women's hoops, be sure to follow the Falcons on Facebook (@BGWBB), Twitter/X (@BGSU_Athletics and @BGSUWBB) and Instagram (@bgsuwbb), as well as on the web at BGSUFalcons.com.