BGSU Battles Buffalo in Midweek #MACtion at the Stroh

Wednesday, January 8

Bowling Green, Ohio

7 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Buffalo

Tickets

Paige Kohler v Marquette | Dec. 18, 2024

Photo by: Avery Zuercher, BGSU Athletics

January 07, 2025 | Women's Basketball

BGSU Notes Buffalo WBB BGSU-UB Rosters Support BGSUWBB 2024-25 Record Book

Falcons face the Bulls as league schedule kicks into high gear

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 8 | 7:00 P.M. | STROH CENTER | BOWLING GREEN, OHIO

BOWLING GREEN
FALCONS
(7-6, 1-1 MAC)

vs.

BUFFALO
BULLS
(12-1, 1-1 MAC)


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

JUMP BALL
• The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team wraps up a two-game homestand with a midweek Mid-American Conference matchup. Head coach Fred Chmiel and the Falcons meet the University at Buffalo on Wednesday night (Jan. 8), with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

$3 TICKETS AND FREE PARKING? YES, PLEASE!
• Don't miss out on the last discount day of winter sports! Enjoy free parking, $3 tickets, and hot dogs, popcorn and 12 oz. Coca-Cola products for only $3 on Wednesday night. (Note: Parking lots reserved for Falcon Club members will still be enforced Concession-stand discounts will run as long as supplies last.)

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

• TV/VIDEO: Wednesday's Buffalo matchup will be streamed via ESPN+.
• RADIO/AUDIO: The UB game, 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.

THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
• Historically, the Falcons have been one of the top programs in the Mid-American Conference. Entering the UB contest, BGSU has gone 459-268 (.631) in league regular-season games. The Falcons have the second-highest winning percentage of all MAC institutions, and the second-most conference wins of all 12 programs.

• BGSU has won 15 MAC regular-season titles, which is tied for the highest total of any conference institution. And, the Falcons have won a league-best 11 MAC Tournament titles.

• BG leads the all-time series with all 11 conference foes, making the Falcons – obviously – the only team in the league with a winning record against every other school. BGSU also has the most overall victories and highest overall winning pct. of any league institution.

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SEMESTER IN THE CLASSROOM
• To the surprise of no one, the Falcons took care of business in the classroom in the Fall 2024 semester. As a team, BGSU had a 3.717 grade-point average for the semester, with 11 student-athletes making the Dean's List and six earning perfect 4.00 GPAs in the fall.

LAST TIME OUT: LIGHTNING-QUICK START LIFTS FALCONS PAST EAGLES
• The Falcons scored 10 points in the blink of an eye to begin the game, and BGSU went on to a 90-76 win over Eastern Michigan Saturday night (Jan. 4) inside the Stroh Center.

• All five starters scored in double digits for the Falcons (7-6, 1-1 MAC), who shot 56.4 percent from the field, including an 18-for-27 (66.7%) effort in the first half.

• Erika Porter led the Falcons with 22 points, making 9-of-11 shots from the floor. Paige Kohler and Amy Velasco had 17 and 16 points, respectively, while Lexi Fleming scored 13 points and had four assists and a game-high four steals.

• Keiryn McGuff rounded out BGSU's double-figure scorers with 11 points, matching that career-high total that she set three days earlier. McGuff led the Falcons with six rebounds.

• Sisi Eleko had 26 points and seven rebounds for the Eagles (1-11, 0-2 MAC), pacing four double-digit scorers.

• Sparked by a pair of Kohler three-pointers, the Falcons built a 10-0 lead in the game's first two minutes. Kohler would hit a third triple before the game was three minutes old. Eastern whittled the Falcons' lead down to four points late in the first quarter, before BG ended the period on a 9-3 run to restore the double-digit lead.

• Then, the Orange and Brown shot 77% (10-of-13) from the field in the second quarter, hitting a pair of buckets in the final 10 seconds of the half to take a 22-point lead into the intermission.

• The BG lead reached a game-high 26 points early in the third quarter, and the margin remained at least 19 points until midway through the fourth period. EMU scored six of the game's final eight points to get within 14 in the waning seconds.

NINETY IS FINE(TY)
• The Falcons scored 90 points in Saturday's win over Eastern Michigan, reaching the 90-point plateau for the second time this season. It marked the first time in nearly two years – since a 101-68 win over Central Michigan on Jan. 11, 2023 – that the Falcons scored as many as 90 points vs. a MAC opponent.

• The 2024-25 edition of the Falcons also reached the 90-point mark against St. Bonaventure back on Nov. 16, in a 92-41 win at the Stroh.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 7-6 on the season, and BGSU is 1-1 in MAC play. The Falcons picked up a 90-76 win over Eastern Michigan at the Stroh Center on Saturday night (Jan. 4), snapping a two-game losing streak.

• BGSU fell to Duquesne in the final pre-conference game of the schedule, before dropping an 81-71 decision at Kent State in the MAC opener on New Year's Day. The DU loss had snapped a four-game winning streak which included victories over Stetson, Arkansas, Xavier and Marquette.

• BGSU is 5-0 at home, 0-6 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site games to date, and the Falcons have a scoring margin of +1.6 and a rebounding margin of +5.5 this year. BG has had a rebounding margin of 10 or more in five games this season to date.

• BGSU opened the campaign with a 71-67 win over Southern Miss at the Stroh Center, but suffered a pair of seven-point losses on the road to Horizon League foes Detroit Mercy and Cleveland State. Then, however, the Orange and Brown returned home and exploded for a 51-point win over St. Bonaventure.

• The Falcons went on the road and faced a pair of nationally-ranked teams, falling to #13/12 West Virginia and #12/11 Ohio State, but BG posted a 2-0 record over the Thanksgiving holiday, downing Stetson and Arkansas at the Daytona Beach Classic.

• The Orange and Brown flattened Stetson, 79-43 (Nov. 29), before posting a 79-78 victory over Arkansas the following afternoon (Nov. 30), in a game that featured four lead changes in the final 30 seconds.

Then, the Orange and Brown returned home and picked up a 78-59 win over Xavier (Dec. 7). That was the first of two consecutive wins over Big East Conference foes, as BG downed Marquette, 64-62 (Dec. 18).

• Four players are scoring in double digits, with three others averaging more than seven points per game. Senior Amy Velasco leads the way with 17.1 ppg, and she also paces the Falcons with 4.8 assists per contest. Velasco has scored in double figures in 12 of 13 games this season, and is second on the club with 20 three-point field goals made.

• Sophomore Paige Kohler has 12.0 ppg, while fifth-year collegian Erika Porter is averaging 11.5 ppg to date. Kohler also has 4.4 rebounds per game, and has made a team-leading 25 three-point field goals. Porter has 5.3 rpg to rank third on the team, and she leads the Falcons – and the MAC – in field-goal percentage, at 56.5 percent.

• Fifth-year Falcon Lexi Fleming is averaging 11.2 ppg in her first five contests of the year. Fleming, who scored a BG-best 17 points at Kent State, has hit 13 triples in her five games to date.

• Sophomore Keiryn McGuff is averaging 8.0 ppg and 7.0 rpg in her first four games of the season, while soph Taya Ellis and freshman Lauren Gerken have 7.5 and 7.2 ppg, respectively. McGuff had a career-high 11 points at Kent State, then matched that total with 11 more points three days later vs. EMU.

• Gerken is fourth on the team in rebounding (4.6 rpg) and third in three-pointers made (14), while Ellis is averaging a BG-best 8.8 rpg and also leads the Falcons with 1.2 blocked shots per outing.

• Freshman Johnea Donahue and junior Kendal Moxey have 5.3 and 4.7 ppg, respectively. Donahue leads BGSU and the MAC with 2.9 steals per game, while Moxey is 25-for-49 (51.0%) from the floor.

• 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's other returnees from last season are third-year Falcons Emily Siesel and Jasmine Fearne. Siesel played in 26 games off the bench last winter, while 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 Moxey and Kristiana Kulackovska, along with five freshmen – Donahue, Gerken, Laila Harrison, Brook Simpson and Taylor Wallace.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE BULLS
• Buffalo enters Wednesday night's game with an overall record of 12-1, and the Bulls are 1-1 in MAC play. UB won 12-straight games to begin the season, before suffering an 82-73 loss at Kent State on Sunday afternoon.

• The Falcons and Bulls have two common opponents this season to date. Both teams defeated St. Bonaventure at home (BG by 51 points, UB by 28) and lost to KSU on the road (UB by nine, BG by 10).

• Chellia Watson has 19.4 ppg to pace four Bulls in double digits in scoring, while Kirsten Lewis-Williams has 13.5 ppg to date. Both players were named to the Preseason All-MAC First Team.

• Head coach Becky Burke welcomed back five players, including three starters, from last season's team that finished 19-14 overall and 10-8 in the MAC. UB tied BGSU for fourth place in the league standings and advanced to the championship game of the MAC Tournament.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Buffalo, 28-25, in the all-time series, but the Bulls have won the last four meetings, including all three 2023-24 matchups. The Bulls picked up a 70-55 win at the Stroh late in the regular season (Feb. 28, 2024), then downed the Falcons by a 70-64 count two weeks later in the MAC Tournament in Cleveland (March 13, 2024). BGSU's last win was a 64-61 decision in Western New York two years ago (Jan. 25, 2023).

• The Falcons are 12-11 at home (4-9 at the Stroh), 14-13 on the road and 2-1 at neutral sites vs. UB through the years. Additional series information can be found elsewhere in these notes.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the UB game, BGSU will hit the road for the next two contests, beginning with a Saturday (Jan. 11) matchup at Miami. That game will begin at 1:00 p.m. at Millett Hall.

• Then, the Falcons will face Ohio in Athens on Wednesday, Jan. 15, before returning home to meet Northern Illinois three nights later (Sat., Jan. 18).

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.