BGSU Battles #12/11 Buckeyes Sunday Afternoon

SUNDAY, NOV. 24 | 1:00 P.M. | SCHOTTENSTEIN CENTER | COLUMBUS, OHIO

BOWLING GREEN
FALCONS
(2-3, 0-0 MAC)

#12/11 OHIO STATE
BUCKEYES
(4-0, 0-0 Big Ten)


WATCH: B1G+ \| 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 meet a nationally-ranked opponent for the second time this week. Head coach Fred Chmiel and the Falcons head to Columbus this weekend, for a Sunday (Nov. 24) matchup with #12/11 Ohio State University. Tipoff is set for 1:00 p.m. at the Schottenstein Center.

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

• TV/VIDEO: Sunday's OSU matchup will be streamed via Big Ten Network+.
• RADIO/AUDIO: The OSU 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 (or click the links near the top of this very page).

YOU LOOK FAMILIAR
• BGSU sophomore Keiryn McGuff will see a familiar face on the opposing bench Sunday. Keiryn's father, Kevin McGuff, is in his 12th season as the head coach at Ohio State.

• The younger McGuff has yet to see action for the Falcons this season, as she is working her way back from an injury suffered in January. She played each of BGSU's first 16 games last season, starting the final two contests, before the injury.

AMY MOVES INTO THE TOP 25
• Senior Amy Velasco had a team-high 20 points in the Falcons' game at Detroit Mercy (Nov. 8), and followed that up with a game-best 28 points on Tuesday night (Nov. 12) at Cleveland State. She again led all players last Saturday (Nov. 16), with 22 points vs. St. Bonaventure, and has moved into the top-25 on the BGSU career scoring chart.

• Velasco passed Stefanie Wenzel (1,099 points from 2000-04) to move into 25th place with her performance vs. the Bonnies, and she added a team-high 18 points on Tuesday (Nov. 19) at West Virginia.

• Velasco's next target on the BGSU career scoring list is Andrea Nordmann, who had 1,164 points from 1989-93. The complete list can be found in the PDF version of these notes.

• Velasco currently has a career scoring average of 10.66 points per game, which puts her 23rd on that BGSU list.

AMY ALSO ACCUMULATES ASSISTS
• Amy Velasco is moving up the BGSU career scoring list, and the senior also enjoys a lofty perch on the school's career assists list. 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.

• Velasco enters the Ohio State game with a total of 366 career assists. She recently moved past Cathy Koch (347 assists from 1988-92) into sole possession of ninth place, and 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 3.45. The complete lists of both career assists and assists per game can be found in the PDF version of these very notes.

THE FALCONS VS. THE TOP 25
• Entering the Ohio State game, the Falcons have an all-time record of 5-40 against teams ranked in the top 25 in the Associated Press and/or USA Today polls. BGSU is 3-5 at home (1-2 at the Stroh Center), 1-25 on the road and 1-10 in neutral-site games vs. ranked opponents.

• BGSU is 2-14 against teams ranked in the top 10 of at least one poll. The wins came at home (Anderson Arena) vs. #10/10 Purdue in 1991, and against #7/8 Vanderbilt in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Championships in East Lansing, Mich.

• Of BGSU's five total victories over nationally-ranked teams, three have come over Vanderbilt, with BGSU downing Purdue and Dayton once each.

• Vanderbilt is the highest-ranked team the Falcons have ever defeated, as BGSU topped the #7/8 Commodores in the aforementioned 2007 game.

• In addition to the win over Purdue in '91, the Falcons' other home victory over a nationally-ranked team was a 65-40 triumph against #15/14 Dayton at the Stroh Center on Dec. 30, 2012. That UD game is the Falcons' most recent win over a top-25 team, and is also BG's largest margin of victory against a nationally-ranked club.

• The complete list of BGSU's game-by-game results vs. top-25 foes can be found ... you guessed it ... in the PDF version of these notes.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 2-3 on the young season. BGSU opened the campaign with a 71-67 win over Southern Miss (Nov. 4) at the Stroh Center, but suffered a pair of seven-point losses on the road to Horizon League foes Detroit Mercy (73-66; Nov. 8) and Cleveland State (75-68; Nov. 12). Then, however, the Orange and Brown exploded for a 51-point win (92-41; Nov. 16) over St. Bonaventure.

• On Tuesday (Nov. 19), the Falcons dropped a 78-47 decision at #13/12 West Virginia.

• Two players are scoring in double digits through five games, with a total of five Falcons averaging at least six points per game. Senior Amy Velasco leads the way with 19.8 ppg, and she also paces the Falcons with 3.8 assists per contest. Velasco had 18 points at WVU after averaging 23.3 ppg over the prior three games. She has scored in double figures in all five games this season and in seven-straight games, dating to last season.

• Sophomores Paige Kohler and Taya Ellis have 12.8 and 8.6 ppg, respectively. Kohler has made 10 three-point field goals, just one behind Velasco's team-leading total, while Ellis is averaging a BG-best 10.0 rebounds per contest and also leads the Falcons with 1.2 blocked shots per outing.

• Fifth-year collegian Erika Porter and freshman Lauren Gerken have 7.8 and 6.4 ppg, respectively, to date, while another freshman, Johnea Donahue, has 4.6 ppg and leads BGSU with 2.4 steals per game. All three players have 4.0 rpg to tie for second on the team in that category.

• 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 got off to a 5-1 start last season, before ending pre-conference play with a 6-4 mark. Three of those four losses came to nationally-ranked teams (#4/4 Iowa, #1/1 South Carolina and #16/15 Indiana) in the month of December.

• 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.

• 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 BUCKEYES
• Nationally-ranked Ohio State is off to a 4-0 start this season. The Buckeyes beat Belmont by four points, 67-63, last Sunday (Nov. 17), but the team's other three wins have been by an average of 46.6 points per game. OSU has topped the 90-point mark three times and the century mark twice, including a 106-42 win at Ohio on Wednesday evening (Nov. 20) in Athens.

• Six players are averaging at least 9.0 points per game. Chance Gray and Jaloni Cambridge have 18.0 and 17.0 ppg, respectively, with Cotie McMahon scoring 16.3 ppg. In addition to an overall scoring margin of +36.0, the Buckeyes have a +9.3 rebounding margin and a +13.3 turnover margin this year to date.

• Head coach Kevin McGuff's 2023-24 team went 26-6 overall and 16-2 in Big Ten Conference play, advancing to the NCAA Championships second round.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons trail Ohio State, 15-2, in the all-time series. The Buckeyes won the most recent meeting, a 94-63 decision three years ago (Nov. 17, 2021). BGSU picked up a win in Columbus in the previous meeting, a 64-52 victory exactly 11 years prior to Sunday's game (Nov. 24, 2013). BGSU is 1-2 at home, 1-9 on the road and 0-4 in neutral-site meetings with the Buckeyes over the years.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the OSU game, BGSU will head to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday, jetting to Daytona Beach for the Daytona Beach Classic. BGSU will meet Stetson on Friday (Nov. 29) and Arkansas Saturday (Nov. 30) in that tournament, with both games set to begin at 1:15 p.m. at the Ocean Center.

• BGSU's next home game is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 7, when Xavier comes to the Stroh Center for a 7:00 p.m. matchup.

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.

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SUNDAY, NOV. 24 | 1:00 P.M. | SCHOTTENSTEIN CENTER | COLUMBUS, OHIO

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Players Mentioned

Johnea Donahue

Taya Ellis

Jasmine Fearne

Lexi Fleming

Lauren Gerken

Laila Harrison

Paige Kohler

Kristiana Kulackovska

Keiryn McGuff

Kendal Moxey

Erika Porter

Emily Siesel

Brook Simpson

Amy Velasco

Taylor Wallace

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