Falcons Fall to CMU Despite Moxey's Career Day

Saturday, January 3

Bowling Green, Ohio

2 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

8-6,1-2MAC

Central Michigan

8-5,2-1MAC

Central Mich.

Bowling Green

Photo by: Drake Harlett, BGSU Athletics

January 03, 2026 | Women's Basketball

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Senior posts double-double, including a whopping 10 offensive rebounds, in 68-56 setback

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Senior Kendal Moxey had her finest game in a Bowling Green State University uniform to date, but the Falcon women's basketball team lost for the first time at home this season. BGSU dropped a 68-56 decision to Central Michigan University Saturday afternoon (Jan. 3), in Mid-American Conference action at the Stroh Center.

Moxey came off the bench to record a double-double for the Falcons (8-6, 1-2 MAC) on Saturday. She led the Orange and Brown with 16 points and 15 rebounds, obliterating her previous bests since joining the program prior to last season. A whopping 10 of her 15 rebounds came at the offensive end of the court, the highest total by a Falcon in seven years.

Junior Paige Kohler joined Moxey in double digits in the scoring column, with 11 points, while classmate Taya Ellis had eight points and eight boards. Senior Kaia Woods scored seven points and grabbed seven rebounds as BGSU had a 45-37 rebounding advantage.

Madi Morson scored a game-high 22 points for the Chippewas (8-5, 2-1 MAC), while Nekhu Mitchell had 17 points.

Defense was the story in the early going, as the Falcons held a 5-2 lead midway through the first period, before Lilah Turnbull's three-point field goal began a 10-0 run for the visitors. BGSU battled back from that seven-point deficit, tying the score on a three-point play by Moxey with 3:26 to go before halftime. Moxey was on the receiving end of 10 of CMU's 29 fouls committed in the game.

The visitors forged back ahead before the Falcons tied the score with a 4-0 run – all on Moxey free throws – sending the teams into their respective locker rooms knotted at 26-all.

Central, however, began the second half on a 7-0 run to take the lead for good. That lead reached 12 points before an Ellis three-point play ended the third-quarter scoring, but the visitors scored the first five points of the fourth period to take a 14-point lead, the largest of the game, with 7:55 to go.

A Moxey layup and two Kohler buckets, including BGSU's only three-pointer of the game, cut the lead in half with 6:06 remaining. The Falcons got as close as five points on Johnea Donahue's driving layup with 1:39 left, but BG could draw no closer. CMU scored the game's last five points at the foul line to provide the double-digit final score.

The Falcons held Central to under 40 percent shooting for the game, but BGSU went just 16-of-55 (29.1%) from the floor and 1-of-16 from the arc.

NOTE OF THE DAY: MOX!
• Kendal Moxey had totals of 16 points and 15 rebounds in Saturday's game. Moxey's previous career scoring best as a Falcon was 12 points, set last year in a win over Marquette (Dec. 18, 2024) at the Stroh.
• Moxey obliterated her previous rebounding high at BGSU, having recorded six boards on two occasions last season.

BONUS NOTE OF THE DAY: OFFENSIVE ONSLAUGHT
• Kendal Moxey's total of 10 offensive rebounds on Saturday was the highest by a Falcon in nearly seven years, since Kadie Hempfling (now a BGSU assistant coach) grabbed 10 offensive boards in a game at Eastern Michigan during her freshman year (Jan. 23, 2019).
• No Falcon has had more than 10 offensive rebounds in almost 30 years, since the legendary Charlotta Jones had 12 against Miami on Jan. 31, 1996.
DOUBLE-DIGIT OFFENSIVE-REBOUNDING TOTALS (since 1995)
1. 12 Charlotta Jones vs. Miami, 1/31/96 (20 pts, 22 rebs)
2. 10 Alexis Rogers vs. Buffalo, 1/4/14 (22 pts, 17 rebs)
10 Kadie Hempfling at Eastern Michigan, 1/23/19 (9 pts, 16 rebs, 5 asts)
10 Kendal Moxey vs. Central Michigan, 1/3/26 (16 pts., 15 rebs)

ALSO NOTEWORTHY
• With her total of 11 points on Saturday, junior Paige Kohler now has 965 points in her BGSU career. Kohler, who currently sits in 35th place on the school's career scoring list, is now 35 points away from becoming the 33rd Falcon in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark.

FIRST QUARTER
• Johnea Donahue opened the scoring with a layup just under 90 seconds into the contest, and CMU's Ayanna-Sarai Darrington answered with a putback on the next possession. Then, however, the only points in the next three-plus minutes were three free throws by the Falcons.
• Just over midway through the quarter, Lilah Turnbull hit a three-point field goal that tied the score. That triple also began a 10-0 run for the Chippewas, and after Madi Morson knocked down a jumper with 3:04 left in the quarter, the visitors had a 12-5 lead.
• A three-point play by Taya Ellis ended that run, and a pair of Kaia Woods free throws cut the CMU lead to just two points. Kendal Moxey hit a charity toss, before a pair of Morson shots at the stripe gave the Chippewas a 14-11 lead after 10 minutes.

SECOND QUARTER
• Morson opened the period with a layup, and after Paige Kohler took a Jasmine Fearne pass and scored, Nekhu Mitchell answered with a layup for the visitors. But, Donahue converted a driving layup, then came up with a steal and fired the ball ahead to Kohler for a transition layup that cut the CMU lead to 18-17.
• Moxey answered a Demetria Prewitt layup with a bucket of her own, and after Taylor Jonson scored inside, Moxey's 'and-one' putback, followed by the successful free throw, tied the score at 22-all with 3:26 left before halftime.
• Central scored the next four points, before Moxey converted four free throws in the final 1:49 of the half, and it was a 26-26 game at the intermission.
• Moxey had BGSU's final nine points of the second quarter.

THIRD QUARTER
• The Chippewas scored the first seven points of the second half, with Morson recording the first five. The sophomore hit a floater, then knocked down a three-point try, and Zareia Chevre's layup gave the visitors a 35-28 lead.
• Lauren Gerken's hook shot stopped BG's drought, but Mitchell and Darrington each scored to put the Chippewas up by nine. Two Woods free throws were followed by a Moxey layup, but Morson immediately answered with a corner three for a 40-32 CMU lead, and a Mitchell triple put the margin into double digits for the first time.
• Joniyah Bland-Fitzpatrick sank a pair of free-throw tries, but moments later, a Taylor Anderson layup gave Central a 46-34 lead late in the period. Taya Ellis cut the deficit to nine points with a three-point play.

FOURTH QUARTER
• CMU scored the first five points of the quarter, with Morson's jumper giving the visitors a 14-point lead, the largest of the game, just over two minutes into the quarter.
• Moxey's layup began a 7-0 run for the Falcons, a run that included a Kohler triple, then a Kohler layup after Emily Siesel drew a charge against Anderson. The CMU lead was 51-44 with just over six minutes to go, but the Chippewas answered each BGSU bucket over the next few minutes.
• Kohler's nifty bounce pass freed a cutting Siesel for a layup with 3:09 to go, and an Ellis free throw just over 30 seconds later cut the Central advantage to 56-50. Donahue's driving layup at the 1:39 mark made it a 57-52 game, but BG would draw no closer.
• The Falcons fouled to send Chevre to the line with 1:36 remaining, and she missed both free-throw tries, but Mitchell rebounded the second miss, was fouled, and sank both of her attempts. Beginning with those Mitchell tosses, the Chippewas went 11-for-12 at the stripe to end the game.

UP NEXT
• After a midweek bye, the Falcons will head to the MAC's "West Coast" to face Northern Illinois University next Saturday afternoon (Jan. 10). That game will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET at the Convocation Center in DeKalb, Ill.
• Then, the Orange and Brown will face Western Michigan in Kalamazoo four days later (Wed., Jan. 14), before returning to the Stroh Center to face Miami on Saturday, Jan. 17. The Miami game will be the Falcons' annual Alumni Day, with numerous former Falcon greats expected to be in attendance.

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.