Toledo Comes to the Stroh for Saturday's Battle of I-75

Photo by: Daniel Carlson, BGSU Athletics

February 20, 2026 | Women's Basketball

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Falcons Meet Rockets in a 2:00 p.m. Matchup

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2026 | 2:00 P.M. | STROH CENTER | BOWLING GREEN, OHIO

BOWLING GREEN
FALCONS
(14-12, 6-8 MAC)

vs.

TOLEDO
ROCKETS
(14-10, 8-5 MAC)


WATCH: ESPN+ \| LISTEN: Falcon Media Sports \| LIVE STATS: BGSU-UT \| TWITTER/X: @BGSUwbb \| INSTAGRAM: bgsuwbb

WHAT, WHEN & WHERE
• The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team renews the "Battle of I-75" on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 21), as the University of Toledo comes to town. Head coach Fred Chmiel and the Falcons face the Rockets in a 2:00 p.m. start at the Stroh Center.

ORANGE WAVE / MESERVE CUP
• Saturday's game is an orange wave, with fans encouraged to wear orange to the game. And, the game is a Meserve Cup event for BGSU student-athletes.

CLEAR BAG MANDATE
• Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, a clear bag mandate is now in effect for games at BGSU venues, including the Stroh Center. Media members attending games will need to use only the media entrance as part of the mandate. For more information, please click here.

PARKING CHANGES FOR 2025-26
Additional Limited Mobility Parking Now Available for All Home Basketball Games
• To better accommodate fans and guests with limited mobility, additional designated parking spaces will now be available for all upcoming home Men's and Women's Basketball games at the Stroh Center.
• Additional parking will be located on the north side of Lot 24, beginning with the first row of spaces adjacent to the grass area and including the next two rows directly behind it. Guests utilizing these spaces should enter through the Student Entrance, located on the north side of Lot 24. From there, fans may use the service elevator to access the main arena and seating areas.
• Limited mobility parking will remain paid parking and will be clearly marked with signage indicating the designated spaces and new location.

WHERE TO WATCH / LISTEN
• Saturday's Toledo tilt will be streamed via ESPN+. Additionally, all 2025-26 games will have an audio stream, thanks to BG Falcon Media Sports.

STATS & SOCIAL MEDIA
• Links to audio, video and live stats for all 2025-26 games can always be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com – both on the women's basketball schedule page and in the right column on the main page – on game day.

LAST TIME OUT: FALCONS TOP BRONCOS, 67-63, WEDNESDAY NIGHT
• The Falcons made numerous key plays down the stretch Wednesday night (Feb. 18), posting a 67-63 win over Western Michigan at the Stroh Center.

• Junior Paige Kohler scored 16 points for the Falcons (14-12, 6-8 MAC), while sophomore Johnea Donahue's 14 points included nine in the fourth quarter. Junior Taya Ellis had a double-double, with 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

• De'Ahna Richardson scored 13 points to lead three players in double figures for the Broncos (7-17, 3-9 MAC), who have lost their last three games by a combined 12 points.

• Western led for a total of just 48 seconds over the first three quarters, but got back-to-back three pointers from Alli Carlson and Alli Harness to take a 54-50 lead early in the fourth. But, Donahue responded with a driving 'and-one' layup, completing the three-point play, and after a WMU miss, Donahue found senior Kaia Woods in transition to give the Falcons a 55-54 lead with seven minutes to go.

• The teams traded three-pointers before the media timeout, but after those triples – from BGSU's Jasmine Fearne and WMU's Richardson – neither team would score for nearly three minutes.

• A Joniyah Bland-Fitzpatrick steal and layup put BG up by three, but Kailey Starks hit two free throws, then answered a pair of Donahue charity tosses with a layup with 47.3 seconds left.

• BG turned the ball over, and the Broncos used a timeout. Out of that timeout with 22.0 seconds to go, however, Donahue stole Western's inbound pass. After another timeout and a long pass ahead, Donahue was fouled and hit both free-throw tries to give the Falcons a 64-61 lead with 17.7 seconds remaining.

• After a timeout, a BG foul and a pair of Carlson charity tosses, the Falcons inbounded the ball after yet another timeout and Donahue was fouled. With 16.4 seconds left, the sophomore hit both shots from the stripe. The next WMU possession saw a three-point try miss the mark, and Kohler rebounded the ball, was fouled and hit a free throw to make it a two-possession game with 5.4 seconds left.

• Donahue went a perfect 7-for-7 from the line, all in the final quarter, in Wednesday's win. In addition to her 14 points, she had six rebounds, three steals and a game-high six assists.

• Kohler was 3-for-5 from the arc in the victory, while Fearne hit a pair of triples en route to six points. Senior Kendal Moxey came off the bench to score seven points and grab three offensive rebounds in just over three minutes of action.

NUMBER THREE IS THREE AWAY
• As a freshman in 2024-25, Johnea Donahue had a total of 69 steals, tying her for eighth (spoiler alert: now tied for ninth) on the BGSU single-season list. She averaged 2.46 steals per game a year ago, ranking 10th on that school chart.

• This winter, Donahue has a MAC-leading 98 steals, the second-highest single-season total in BGSU history. She is only three steals away from tying the school record of 101, which is currently held by Nyla Hampton (2022-23).

• Donahue is currently averaging 4.08 steals per game, and is on pace to shatter the BGSU record in that category. Currently, the single-season record is 3.07 spg, by Talita Scott in 1993-94.

• In fact, even if Donahue were to play in the Falcons' four remaining regular-season games without recording a steal, she would still be on pace to break the BGSU seasonal record for steals per game by a wide margin. The single-season lists for steals and steals per game can be found on page 16.

• Donahue – again, just a sophomore – has moved onto the top-20 list for career steals. After recording six on Wednesday night vs. WMU, she enters the Toledo contest with a career total of 167 steals, good for 18th in school history. And, she is on pace to obliterate the school's career record for steals per game as well as the single-season mark. The career steals lists can be found on page 25.

DONAHUE'S DOMINANCE
• Johnea Donahue has had more than her share of well-rounded games in 2025-26. The sophomore was named MAC Player of the Week after scoring a career-high 24 points and adding six rebounds, six assists and six steals at Wisconsin (Nov. 12).

• She missed two games due to injury in mid-December, but returned to action and posted a double-double in the MAC opener vs. Kent State (Dec. 20). She had a game-high 19 points and a career-high 11 boards en route to another MAC P-O-T-W honor.

• Some of her other marquee performances this winter include...

• An eight-steal game – all in the first half and just two shy of the school single-game record – vs. Kentucky State (Dec. 3);
• A double double with 10 points and 10 boards at Eastern Michigan (Dec. 30);
• Her second eight-steal game of the season, along with 10 points, five assists and four rebounds, in the win at Northern Illinois (Jan. 10);
• A game-high six steals in back-to-back games, vs. Massachusetts (Jan. 24) and Akron (Jan. 28), with 21 points in the UA contest;
• A 19-point, seven-rebound, four-steal performance at Toledo (Jan. 31);
• Last Saturday's (Feb. 14) 12-point, six-board, seven-steal game at Ball State, with six of those seven steals coming in the first half; and
• Six more steals, along with 14 points, six caroms and three assists and a 7-for-7 fourth-quarter free-throw performance, in Wednesday's (Feb. 18) win over WMU.

• Currently, Donahue is averaging 4.08 steals per game this season, which leads the MAC and ranks her third in the entire nation. And, she is ranked among the MAC leaders in total steals (first, 98 – 30 more than anyone else in the league), rebounds (17th), assists (eighth), free-throw pct. (13th) and assist/turnover ratio (11th) as well.

MILLENNIUM FALCON: PK MOVING UP BGSU SCORING LIST
• Junior Paige Kohler reached the 1,000-point mark for her career on Jan. 21, and had a BGSU season-high 26 points last Tuesday (Feb. 10) vs. Buffalo to surpass the 1,100-point plateau.

• Kohler became the 33rd player in program history to reach the millennium mark. And, she is tied for the seventh-fastest player to get to the 1,000-point plateau, having done so in her 80th career game in the Orange and Brown. The list of fastest Falcons to 1,000 points can be found on page 7 of these very notes.

• Kohler has moved into 27th place on the BGSU career scoring list, and now has 1,138 career points at BG entering the Toledo tussle.

THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
• Historically, the Falcons have been one of the top programs in the Mid-American Conference. Entering the Toledo game, BGSU has gone 475-282 (.627) in league regular-season games over the years. The Falcons have the second-highest winning percentage of all MAC institutions, and the second-most conference wins of all 13 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.

• BGSU leads the all-time series with all 12 conference foes, making the Falcons – obviously – the only team in the league with a winning record against every other school. BG also has the most overall victories and highest overall winning pct. of any league institution.

KOHLER, UNSURPRISINGLY, NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-MAC TEAM
• BGSU junior Paige Kohler was named to the 2025-26 Preseason All-MAC First Team, which was determined via voting by the league's 13 head coaches.

• Kohler, a native of Olmsted Falls, Ohio, earned All-MAC Honorable mention last season, and also was named to both the Academic All-MAC Team and the Academic All-District® Team, selected by College Sports Communicators. The guard started all 31 games in 2024-25, and averaged 35.0 minutes, 13.6 points and 4.6 boards per game, finishing second on the club in both scoring and rebounding.

• This season, Kohler leads the Falcons in scoring, with 14.6 ppg, and she is second in assists (3.1 apg). Kohler is listed among the top players in the MAC in scoring (ninth), assists (12th), three-pointers made per game (fourth), assist/turnover ratio (ninth) and minutes played (fifth).

• In her first two-plus seasons at BGSU, Kohler has compiled impressive totals of 1,138 points, 375 rebounds, 303 assists and 174 three-point field goals made. She has moved into 27th place on the BGSU career scoring list, and also is currently ranked on the school's career charts for points per game (10th, 12.93), assists per game (eighth, 3.44), three-pointers made (10th) and three-pointers made per game (fourth, 1.98).

• Kohler has been in the starting lineup for all 88 of BGSU's games since she arrived on campus.

SPEAKING OF THE STARTING LINEUP...
• Senior Kendal Moxey made her first start as a Falcon in the win over Coastal Carolina (Feb. 7). The Falcons have used 10 different starting lineups this season to date, after the Brown and Orange utilized five different lineups during all of last year and six the previous season (2023-24).

• A total of 11 different players each have started at least one game this year. That group includes a pair of fourth-year Falcons (senior Emily Siesel and redshirt junior Jasmine Fearne) who had never started a collegiate contest prior to Nov. 22, 2025, when both were in the starting five.

• Junior Paige Kohler is the only player who has started all 26 games this year, while sophomore Johnea Donahue and junior Taya Ellis have made 24 and 21 starts, respectively. Kaia Woods has started 18 games and Lauren Gerken 17.

PROTECT THE STROH
• After beating Western Michigan on Wednesday (Feb. 18), the Falcons have a record of 10-3 at the Stroh Center this season to date. That record includes a 73-69 win over preseason MAC favorite Kent State in the conference opener (Dec. 20).

• The Falcons went 11-2 in home games last winter. BGSU's home winning percentage (.846) in 2024-25 was the third best since the Stroh Center opened in 2011. Only the 2013-14 (16-1, .941) and '11-12 (14-2, .875) teams have had better marks during that time.

• Over the last five-plus seasons, the Falcons are 62-20 (.756) at the Stroh.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE ROCKETS
• Toledo enters Saturday's contest with an overall record of 14-10, and the Rockets are 8-5 in MAC play. UT has won three of the last four games, including a 60-52 victory at Massachusetts on Wednesday (Feb. 18). The Rockets are 10-3 at home and 4-7 on the road this season to date. In MAC action, UT is 6-1 at Savage Arena and 2-4 inside hostile venues.

• Toledo's balanced scoring attack sees three players – Patricia Anumgba, Faith Fedd-Robinson and Kendall Carruthers – each averaging 11.7 points per game. Fedd-Robinson leads the Rockets in rebounding, with 7.0 rpg, while Anumgba has made a team-high 40 three-point field goals.

• Head coach Ginny Boggess welcomed back six players from a 2024-25 team that went 24-9 overall and 13-5 in the MAC.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Toledo, 46-45, in the all-time series, but the Rockets captured this season's first meeting, a 59-49 decision three weekends ago (Jan. 31, 2026) in the Glass City. The teams split last, as UT picked up an 80-68 home win (Jan. 25, 2025), while the Falcons won an 81-72 outcome at the Stroh Center (Feb. 22, 2025).

• BGSU's win last February snapped a five-game series winning streak for the Rockets. The Falcons have won two of the last three meetings inside the Stroh Center. Overall, the Falcons have gone 23-15 at home, 15-26 on the road and 8-4 in neutral-site meetings with Toledo over the years. More information can be found on page 27 of these very notes.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the UT contest, the Falcons will hit the road for the next two games. BGSU will venture to Athens for a Wednesday (Feb. 25) meeting with Ohio, with tipoff set for 7:00 p.m. at the Convocation Center.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will face Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant the following Wednesday night (March 4), before ending the regular-season schedule by hosting Northern Illinois on Saturday, March 7.

REMAINING SCHEDULE
Sat., Feb. 21 | TOLEDO | 2:00 (Orange Wave / Meserve Cup)
Wed., Feb. 25 | at Ohio | 7:00
Wed., March 4 | at Central Mich. | 6:30
Sat., March 7 | NORTHERN ILL. | 2:00 (Senior Day)
all times p.m. and Eastern

STORIES & LINKS
Feb. 19 - BG Falcon Media - "Bowling Green Has My Heart": Inside the Return of Hempfling
Feb. 16 - Toledo Blade ($$$) - Former Liberty-Benton Star Gerken Finding Stride with BGSU
Feb. 5 - BG Falcon Media - From Sao Paulo to the Stroh: Moschen's Journey to BGSU
January - BGSU - The Game Within the Game: Kohler's Psychology of Winning
Dec. 18 - Lorain Morning Journal - Olmsted Falls Grad Kohler Looks to Lead Falcons
Nov. 25 - Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum - Walk-on to Captain: Siesel's Patience Pays Off at Bowling Green

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.