League-Leading RedHawks Escape the Stroh with 51-49 Victory

Saturday, January 17

Bowling Green, Ohio

4 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

10-7,3-3MAC

Miami (OH)

14-4,6-0MAC

Miami (OH)

Bowling Green

Photo by: Drake Harlett, BGSU Athletics

January 17, 2026 | Women's Basketball

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BGSU falls just short on Alumni Day at the Stroh

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team took one of the Mid-American Conference leaders right down to the wire, but Miami University escaped the Stroh Center with a 51-49 win over the Falcons on Saturday (Jan. 17).

Junior Paige Kohler and sophomore Lauren Gerken each scored 11 points for the Falcons (10-7, 3-3 MAC), while soph Johnea Donahue added 10.

Gerken also had three assists, a game-high six steals and two blocked shots for the Orange and Brown. Donahue had four steals and Kohler three, as BG came up with 15 steals as a team.

Ilse de Vries led the RedHawks (14-4, 6-0 MAC), who came into the day tied for first place in the conference, with 17 points, while Amber Scalia had 12 and Amber Tretter 10.

The teams combined for 54 turnovers, with BGSU committing 28 and MU 26.

BGSU led, 47-44, after junior Jaedyn Cook's three-point play with 4:17 to go, but the RedHawks turned back-to-back steals into layups by de Vries and Nuria Jurjo to take the lead with 1:32 remaining. Tretter's layup with 42 seconds to go gave the visitors a three-point lead, before junior Joniyah Bland-Fitzpatrick's driving layup made it a 50-49 game with 21.1 seconds to go.

The Falcons fouled several times to reach five for the quarter, and Tretter made one free throw, but missed the second, with the Falcons grabbing the rebound. On the final possession, however, a three-point try by Bland-Fitzpatrick was off the mark, and Miami escaped with the victory.

NOTE OF THE DAY
• With 11 points on Saturday, junior Paige Kohler now has 999 career points at BGSU. She needs just one more point to become the 33rd player in program history to score 1,000 career points.
• If Kohler scores at least one point in BGSU's next game (Wednesday night vs. Ohio at the Stroh Center), she will be tied for the seventh-fastest in school history to reach the millennium mark.

FIRST QUARTER
• The Falcons opened the game on an 8-0 run, only to see the RedHawks respond with the next 10 points to take a 10-8 lead after the opening period.
• A Taya Ellis layup opened the scoring, and Paige Kohler knocked down a pair of three-point tries as the Falcons went ahead by eight with 5:32 left in the opening period.
• The RedHawks finally got on the board just over five minutes into the game on an Amber Tretter layup, and after a Macie Taylor bucket, Tamar Singler's triple got the visitors within one point with 2:40 left in the period.
• Then, a Ciara Gonzalez Planella triple in the final minute gave the 'Hawks the lead after a quarter.

SECOND QUARTER
• For the second-straight quarter, the Falcons started fast. BG scored the first six points of the period, with defense leading to offense. Lauren Gerken came up with a steal and fired a pass to Johnea Donahue for a transition layup, before Gerken stole the ball again and went coast-to-coast, scoring off of a nifty spin move for a 12-10 BG lead.
• BG answered an Ilse deVries bucket with a Kendal Moxey hoop, and after Amber Scalia connected from three-point range, Gerken knocked down a triple try for a 19-15 BG lead at the media timeout.
• The RedHawks got another de Vries triple, and moments later a Scalia trey tied the score at 21-21. Kaia Woods, however, answered with a long-range shot of her own with 1:18 on the clock, and BG took a 24-22 lead into the half.

THIRD QUARTER
• After a pair of offensive rebounds, a third-chance three-pointer by Gerken gave the Falcons a 28-24 lead just under two minutes into the second half. Three-pointers by deVries and Scalia, sandwiched around a Donahue bucket, knotted the score at 30-all as the teams headed into the media timeout.
• Joniyah Bland-Fitzpatrick scored on a driving layup to give BG a three-point lead, and after a de Vries layup, Kohler found Donahue for a three-pointer and a 36-32 lead with two minutes left in the period.
• Gerken answered a Tretter layup with another three-pointer, but de Vries connected from long distance to cut BG's lead to 39-37 after 30 minutes.

FOURTH QUARTER
• BG's lead reached seven points just over two minutes into the quarter after a driving layup by Kohler. Tretter hit a free throw, then hit a layup, and Nuria Jurjo's bucket made it a two-point game with 5:45 on the clock.
• Scalia completed a 7-0 run for the RedHawks with a layup, but Jaedyn Cook's three-point play gave BG a 47-44 lead with 4:17 to go.
• The Falcons still led by that score until a pair of Miami steals led to layups with just under two minutes remaining. The second bucket in that time, a Jurjo layup, gave the RedHawks a one-point advantage.
• Tretter's layup with 42 seconds remaining gave her team a 50-47 lead, before Bland-Fitzpatrick's driving layup cut the margin to one point with 21.1 ticks on the clock. The Falcons fouled several times to reach the five-foul mark for the quarter, and Tretter split a pair of free-throw tries with 15.6 seconds remaining.
• On the final possession of the game, the Falcons got the ball to Bland-Fitzpatrick in front of the BG bench with time winding down, and the junior's hurried three-point try was just off the mark as time expired.

UP NEXT
• The Falcons will remain at home for a midweek matchup vs. Ohio. BGSU will battle the Bobcats on Wednesday night (Jan. 21), with tipoff at 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will hit the road to face Massachusetts four days later (Sunday, Jan. 25). That game will begin at 4:00 p.m. and will be televised nationally via CBS Sports Network.

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