SATURDAY, JAN. 4  |  7:00 P.M.  |  STROH CENTER  |  BOWLING GREEN, OHIO

JUMP BALL
• The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team begins the home portion of the Mid-American Conference schedule this weekend. Head coach Fred Chmiel and the Falcons meet Eastern Michigan University on Saturday night (Jan. 4), with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

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

• TV/VIDEO: Saturday's Eastern Michigan matchup will be streamed via ESPN+.
• RADIO/AUDIO: The EMU 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.

FAMILIAR FACE ON THE OTHER BENCH
• Sahar Nusseibeh is in her first season as head coach at Eastern Michigan, but she is certainly no stranger to either BGSU or the Stroh Center. Nusseibeh, a graduate of Hoover H.S. in glorious North Canton, Ohio, was an assistant coach for the Falcons for three seasons (2013-16).

• In 2013-14, Nusseibeh's first season on the staff, the Falcons went 30-5 overall, won the MAC's regular-season title and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the WNIT.

THE FALCONS VS. THE MAC
• Historically, the Falcons have been one of the top programs in the Mid-American Conference. Entering the EMU contest, BGSU has gone 458-268 (.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: FALCONS FALL IN MAC OPENER ON NEW YEAR'S DAY
• The Falcons battled nearly all the way back from a 15-point second-half deficit, but ultimately fell, 81-71, at Kent State on Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 1). The game, the MAC opener for both teams, was held at the M.A.C. Center.

• Lexi Fleming scored a game-high 17 points for the Falcons (6-6, 0-1 MAC), with a trio of sophomores joining the fifth-year Falcon in double figures. Redshirt sophomore Jasmine Fearne and true sophomore Keiryn McGuff each had a career-high 11 points, while true soph Paige Kohler scored 10. McGuff led the Falcons in rebounding, with nine.

• Jenna Batsch had 15 points for the Golden Flashes (8-5, 1-0 MAC), as a total of five KSU players scored in double digits.

• Freshman Johnea Donahue scored nine points and had six rebounds and a game-high four steals. Senior Amy Velasco was held to single digits in the scoring column for the first time this season, with seven points, but had a game-high eight assists. Velasco became just the seventh player in BGSU history to surpass 400 career assists.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 6-6 on the season, and BGSU is 0-1 in MAC play after Wednesday's (Jan. 1) 81-71 loss at Kent State. The Falcons are looking to reverse a two-game losing streak, including a 67-59 setback at Duquesne in the final non-conference contest (Dec. 21).

• The DU loss snapped a four-game winning streak which included victories over Stetson, Arkansas, Xavier and Marquette. BGSU is 4-0 at home, 0-6 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site games to date, and the Falcons have a scoring margin of +0.6 and a rebounding margin of +4.9.

• 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 17.2 ppg, and she also paces the Falcons with 5.0 assists per contest. Velasco has scored in double figures in 11 of 12 games this season, and is second on the club with 20 three-point field goals made.

• Sophomore Paige Kohler has 11.6 ppg, while fifth-year Falcon Lexi Fleming is averaging 10.8 ppg in her first four contests of the year. Kohler also has 4.5 rebounds per game, and she has made a team-leading 22 triple tries. Fleming has 10 treys in her four games, and had a BG-best 17 points at Kent State.

• Fifth-year collegian Erika Porter is averaging 10.6 ppg along with 5.4 rpg, and is shooting BG-best 53.8 percent from the field.

• Sophomore Taya Ellis and freshman Lauren Gerken have 7.5 and 7.2 ppg, respectively. 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.

• Sophomore Keiryn McGuff is averaging 7.0 ppg and 7.3 rpg in her first two games of the season, while freshman Johnea Donahue and junior Kendal Moxey have 5.3 and 4.9 ppg, respectively. Donahue leads BGSU with 3.0 steals per game, while Moxey is 24-for-47 (51.1%) from the floor. McGuff had a career-high 11 points at KSU.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 EAGLES
• Eastern Michigan enters Saturday night's game with an overall record of 1-10, and the Eagles are looking to snap a five-game losing streak. EMU opened MAC play with a 65-51 loss to visiting Western Michigan on Wednesday.

• The Falcons and Eagles have two common opponents this season to date. Both teams defeated Xavier at home and lost to Detroit Mercy on the road.

• Siso Eleko leads the Eagles in both scoring and rebounding, and is one of just two players in the nation averaging a double-double. Eleko has 20.1 ppg and 11.7 rpg, leading the entire MAC in both categories. Olivia Westfall and Mackenzie Amalia have 9.0 and 8.0 ppg, respectively. Amalia leads the Eagles in assists, with 5.7 apg.

• Head coach Sahar Nusseibeh, in her first season with the Eagles, has seven returning players from last season's team that finished 7-22 overall and 3-15 in the MAC.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Eastern Michigan, 57-21, in the all-time series, but the Eagles won the last meeting. The teams split their 2023-24 matchups, with the home team winning each time. BGSU captured a 69-57 decision at the Stroh (Jan. 10, 2024), with Eastern picking up a 59-54 victory in Ypsilanti on the final day of the regular season (March 9, 2024). The latter game snapped BGSU's six-game series win streak.

• The Falcons are 31-6 at home (6-2 at the Stroh), 21-14 on the road and 5-1 at neutral sites vs. EMU through the years. Additional series information can be found elsewhere in these notes.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the EMU game, BGSU will conclude a two-game homestand with a Wednesday (Jan. 8) contest vs. Buffalo. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will hit the road for the next two games, beginning with a matchup at Miami on Saturday, Jan. 11. That game starts at 1:00 p.m. at Millett Hall in Oxford.

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.