TUESDAY, NOV. 19  |  7:00 P.M.  |  WVU COLISEUM  |  MORGANTOWN, W.VA.

OPENING TIP
• The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off of a record-setting performance over the weekend, faces a pair of nationally-ranked opponents this week, beginning Tuesday night (Nov. 19). Head coach Fred Chmiel and the Falcons face #15/13 West Virginia University, with tipoff at 7:00 p.m. at the WVU Coliseum.

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

• TV/VIDEO: Tuesday's WVU matchup will be streamed via ESPN+.
• RADIO/AUDIO: The WVU contest, 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.

LAST TIME OUT: FALCONS TOP BONA ON RECORD-SETTING DAY
• The Falcons got contributions from the entire active roster en route to setting a program record on Saturday (Nov. 16). BGSU rolled along to a 92-41 win over St. Bonaventure inside the Stroh Center.

• For the Falcons (2-2), the 51-point margin of victory was the largest against an NCAA Division-I opponent in program history.

• BGSU used lights-out shooting to build a double-digit lead in the first quarter, then utilized lock-down defense to blow the game wide open in the third.

• Senior Amy Velasco and sophomore Paige Kohler scored 22 and 19 points, respectively, for the Falcons, with four other players scoring at least nine points.

• Junior Kendal Moxey had 11 points on perfect 5-for-5 shooting, while sophomore Taya Ellis, freshman Lauren Gerken and fifth-year collegian Erika Porter scored nine points each. Ellis had a game-high 12 rebounds to tie her four-day-old career best, while Gerken was a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range.

• BGSU shot 61.8 percent from the floor, going 34-of-55 in the win, and the Falcons shot 41.7% from the arc and 88.9% from the free-throw line.

The Falcons held a 44-25 lead at the half. After the Bonnies scored five of first seven points of the third quarter, BGSU proceeded to go on a 46-11 run to end the game.

BGSU BLISTERS THE BONNIES
• The Falcons, as mentioned in the previous note.  set a program record in Saturday afternoon's (Nov. 16) win over St. Bonaventure.

• The 51-point margin of victory was the largest against an NCAA Division-I opponent in program history, and tied for the fourth-largest margin overall. 
BGSU RECORD BOOK – LARGEST MARGIN OF VICTORY
1.  58   vs. Taylor             94-36     Dec. 5, 1981
2.  52   vs. Ohio Northern      77-25    Feb. 11, 1975
    52   vs. Notre Dame Coll.  100-48    Dec. 21, 2021
4.  51   vs. St. Bonaventure    92-41    Nov. 16, 2024
    51   vs. Wayne State        77-26          1973-74
6.  50   On four occasions                                  

RUNNING WITH THE FALCONS
• BGSU scored 18-straight points in the second half of Saturday's (Nov. 16) win over St. Bonaventure, with the last two points of the third quarter and the first 16 of the fourth. That run was the Falcons' largest since ... earlier in the third quarter of that same game.

• BG scored 23-straight points in the third period, holding Bona scoreless for a 7:05 stretch. After the visitors scored to end that drought, BGSU then scored the next 18.

• In all, it was a 41-2 run for the Falcons, over a 13-minute stretch of game time. When the proverbial smoke had cleared, BGSU had an 87-32 lead with 4:12 to go.

SIX(TH) SHOOTERS
• The Falcons went 34-of-55 from the field in the win over St. Bonaventure. BGSU's 61.8% field-goal percentage was the team's best in a game in 18 years, and was the sixth-highest single-game success rate in program history.
BGSU RECORD BOOK – FIELD-GOAL PERCENTAGE, GAME
1.  vs. Ohio                 Feb. 22, 1989    .667 (36-54)
2.  vs. Ohio Northern        Feb. 4, 1981     .639 (39-61)
3.  vs. Eastern Michigan     Jan. 10, 1998    .630 (34-54)
4.  vs. Buffalo              Jan. 8, 2000     .625 (30-48)
5.  vs. Fairleigh Dickinson  Nov. 18, 2006    .623 (33-53)
6.  vs. St. Bonaventure      Nov. 16, 2024    .618 (34-55)
7.  vs. Michigan State       Dec. 6, 1997     .614 (35-57)
8.  vs. Temple               Nov. 24, 2006    .612 (30-49)

AMY MOVES INTO THE TOP 25
• Senior Amy Velasco had a team-high 20 points in the Falcons' game at Detroit Mercy (Nov. 8), and followed that up with a game-best 28 points on Tuesday night (Nov. 12) at Cleveland State. She again led all players on Saturday (Nov. 16), with 22 points vs. St. Bonaventure, and has moved into the top-25 on the BGSU career scoring chart.

• Velasco passed Stefanie Wenzel (1,099 points from 2000-04) to move into 25th place with her performance vs. the Bonnies, and her next target on that list is Andrea Nordmann, who had 1,164 points from 1989-93.

• Velasco currently has a career scoring average of 10.66 points per game, which puts her 23rd on that BGSU list.

AMY ALSO ACCUMULATES ASSISTS
• Amy Velasco is moving up the BGSU career scoring list, and the senior also enjoys a lofty perch on the school's career assists list. Velasco reached a career milestone late last season, dishing out the 300th assist of her career. Velasco became just the 11th player in school history to reach the 300-assist plateau.

• Velasco enters the West Virginia game with a total of 365 career assists. She recently moved past Cathy Koch (347 assists from 1988-92) into sole possession of ninth place, and her next targets are Jaymee Wappes (1996-2000) and Tracy Pontius (2007-11), who dished out 387 assists each.

• Velasco currently ranks seventh in BGSU history in assists per game, with 3.48. The complete lists of both career assists and assists per game can be found on page 7 of the PDF version of these notes.

THE FALCONS VS. THE TOP 25
• Entering the West Virginia game, the Falcons have an all-time record of 5-39 against teams ranked in the top 25 in the Associated Press and/or USA Today polls. BGSU is 3-5 at home (1-2 at the Stroh Center), 1-24 on the road and 1-10 in neutral-site games vs. ranked opponents.

• BGSU is 2-14 against teams ranked in the top 10 of at least one poll. The wins came at home (Anderson Arena) vs. #10/10 Purdue in 1991, and against #7/8 Vanderbilt in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Championships in East Lansing, Mich.

• Of BGSU's five total victories over nationally-ranked teams, three have come over Vanderbilt, with BGSU downing Purdue and Dayton once each.

• Vanderbilt is the highest-ranked team the Falcons have ever defeated, as BGSU topped the #7/8 Commodores in the aforementioned 2007 game.

• In addition to the win over Purdue in '91, the Falcons' other home victory over a nationally-ranked team was a 65-40 triumph against #15/14 Dayton at the Stroh Center on Dec. 30, 2012. That UD game is the Falcons' most recent win over a top-25 team, and is also BG's largest margin of victory against a nationally-ranked club.

• The complete list of BGSU's game-by-game results vs. top-25 foes can be found on page 16 of the PDF.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 2-2 on the young season. BGSU opened the campaign with a 71-67 win over Southern Miss (Nov. 4) at the Stroh Center, but suffered a pair of seven-point losses on the road to Horizon League foes Detroit Mercy (73-66; Nov. 8) and Cleveland State (75-68; Nov. 12). Then, however, the Orange and Brown exploded for a 51-point win (92-41; Nov. 16) over St. Bonaventure.

• Three players are scoring in double digits through four games, with a total of five Falcons averaging at least seven points per game. Senior Amy Velasco leads the way with 20.3 ppg, and she also paces the Falcons with 4.5 assists per contest. Velasco is averaging 23.3 ppg over the last three games.

• Sophomores Paige Kohler and Taya Ellis have 15.0 and 10.3 ppg, respectively. Kohler leads the team with 10 three-point field goals made, while Ellis is averaging a double-double, with a BG-best 10.5 rebounds per contest, and she also leads the Falcons with 1.5 blocked shots per outing.

• Fifth-year collegian Erika Porter and freshman Lauren Gerken have 8.3 and 7.0 ppg, respectively, to date, while another freshman, Johnea Donahue, has 4.5 ppg and leads BGSU with 2.8 steals per game. Donahue and Gerken have 4.8 and 4.5 rpg, respectively, to rank 2-3 on the team in that category.

• 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.

• BG was 8-5 at home, 6-9 on the road and 2-1 at neutral sites last season. In MAC play, the Falcons went 6-3 at the Stroh and 4-5 away from home.

• 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.

• Five players scored in double digits a year ago, and four of those five return. Fifth-year Falcon Lexi Fleming, one of the many injured players, averaged 31.4 mpg over the first 10 contests of the season, before leaving the Indiana game (Dec. 22). Fleming also had averages of 15.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game, and led the Falcons in all three categories at the time of her injury. She was averaging 16.7 ppg prior to that IU game, in which she played just 1:10.

• The graduated Morgan.Sharps had 15.1 ppg and led the team with 84 three-point field goals made, while Velasco and Porter scored 14.5 and 12.6 ppg, respectively. Kohler had 10.9 ppg in her freshman campaign.

• BGSU's other returnees from last season are junior Emily Siesel and sophomores Ellis and Keiryn McGuff. Siesel played in 26 games off the bench last winter, while Ellis saw action in 29 and ranked second on the team blocked shots behind Porter. McGuff played in 16 games, making two starts, before suffering an injury in January and missing the rest of the season.

• Third-year Falcon Jasmine 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 Kristiana Kulackovska and Kendal Moxey, along with five freshmen – Donahue, Gerken, Laila Harrison, Brook Simpson and Taylor Wallace.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE MOUNTAINEERS
• Nationally-ranked West Virginia is off to a 4-0 start. Those four wins – home games vs. Towson, Niagara, Pittsburgh and Texas A&M – have been by an average of 40.5 points per game.

• Three players average over 15 points, including JJ Quinerly (17.3 ppg), Jordan Harrison (16.5 ppg) and Sydney Shaw (15.5 ppg). Harrison has a team-best 6.8 assists per game.

• WVU has won 32-straight home non-conference games. Head coach Mark Kellogg welcomed back eight players, including four starters, from last year's team that went 25-8 overall and 12-6 in Big 12 Conference play.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons trail West Virginia, 2-0, in the all-time series. The teams met in back-to-back seasons, with the Mountaineers capturing a 90-82 decision over Jaci Clark's Falcons at venerable Anderson Arena just under 28 years ago (Nov. 25, 1996), and an 84-72 outcome the following season in Morgantown (Dec. 13, 1997).

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the WVU game, BGSU will return to the road to face another top-25 opponent, Ohio State, on Sunday (Nov. 24). That game will begin at 1:00 p.m. at the Schottenstein Center.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will travel to Florida for the Daytona Beach Classic. BGSU will meet Stetson (Nov. 29) and Arkansas (Dec. 30) in that tournament.

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.