SATURDAY, DEC. 21  |  12:00 P.M.  |  UPMC COOPER FIELDHOUSE  |  PITTSBURGH, PA.

JUMP BALL
• The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, coming off of back-to-back wins over Big East Conference opponents, heads to Pittsburgh to wrap up the non-conference portion of the schedule this weekend. Head coach Fred Chmiel and the Falcons face Duquesne University on Saturday (Dec. 21), with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

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

• TV/VIDEO: Saturday's Duquesne matchup will be streamed via ESPN+.
• RADIO/AUDIO: The Duquesne 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: BGSU TOPS MARQUETTE FOR FOURTH-STRAIGHT WIN
• The Falcons picked up a second-straight win over a Big East Conference foe, with a 64-62 victory over Marquette Wednesday night (Dec. 18) at the Stroh Center.

• Senior Amy Velasco led a balanced scoring effort for the Falcons (6-4), with 14 points. Sophomore Paige Kohler and junior Kendal Moxey had 13 and 12 points, respectively, with five teammates adding between four and six points apiece.

• Lee Volker and Jaidynn Mason had 17 points apiece for the Golden Eagles (7-3), who saw a seven-game winning streak come to an end. Volker had a double-double, with a game-high 10 rebounds.

• The Falcons, winners of four consecutive games overall, held a 44-36 rebounding advantage in the win. Sophomore Keiryn McGuff, playing in her first game in nearly a year, led the team with eight rebounds, with Moxey pulling down six.

• In addition to her 13 points, Kohler had five boards, a game-high six assists and two steals. The last steal came in the final seconds as BGSU got one final stop to secure the win.

• BGSU led for over 30 minutes, and never trailed after a Moxey layup midway through the second quarter. But, neither team ever led by double digits, and the Golden Eagles had an answer for each BG bucket or free throw to remain close.

• The Falcons had a 28-9 advantage in bench scoring. In addition to Moxey's 12 points off the bench, freshman Johnea Donahue and redshirt soph Jasmine Fearne had six points apiece, with McGuff adding four.

• Moxey scored 10 of her points in the second quarter alone, despite playing less than half of the period. She scored seven-straight points in a span of just 64 seconds, giving BGSU the lead for good.

WELCOME BACK!
• For the second consecutive game, the Falcons saw a player return to action after missing nearly a year. In the Xavier game (Dec. 7), Lexi Fleming came off the bench to make her first appearance since suffering an injury on Dec. 22, 2023. Fleming went 3-for-4 from three-point range en route to nine points vs. the Musketeers.

• On Wednesday night, sophomore Keiryn McGuff saw her first action since Jan. 20, 2024. McGuff checked into the Marquette contest with 4:17 remaining in the first period. McGuff scored four points and had a team-leading eight rebounds in just over 16 minutes of action in Wednesday's win.

LEXI'S BACK!
• As mentioned, Lexi Fleming saw her first action in nearly a year – since Dec. 22, 2023 – and had nine points against Xavier. The fifth-year Falcon had those nine points in just under 14 minutes of action, going 3-for-4 from the arc.

• She came off the bench in the Xavier game, and was in the starting lineup for the Marquette matchup. Fleming has now played in 75 contests in her Falcon career. In those games, BGSU has a record of 57-18, including a 27-6 mark at the Stroh Center.

THE FLEMING FACTOR
• Lexi Fleming has been a B!G part of the Falcons' success since arriving at BG. The MAC Freshman of the Year in 2020-21, Fleming missed the entire '21-22 season due to injury, but returned to the court in '22-23 and saw action in 36 games as BGSU went 31-7.

• As mentioned above, Fleming has played in a total of 75 contests as a Falcon. BGSU has a record of 57-18 in those 75 games, including a 27-8 ledger in MAC regular-season play, a 31-10 mark in all games (regular season and tournament) against conference foes and a 27-6 record at the Stroh Center.

• Four of those 18 losses came against nationally-ranked opponents, including a game at Indiana last Dec. 22, when Fleming played just 70 seconds before leaving due to an injury.

• Heading into that IU game, Fleming led the 2023-24 team in scoring (16.7 ppg) and steals (2.7 spg), and the 5-5 guard also paced the Falcons in rebounding (5.1 rpg).

• Fleming returned to action 11-and-a-half months later, scoring nine points on three three-point field goals vs. Xavier (Dec. 7).

• In that Xavier game, she passed several former Falcons to move into the top 40 on the BGSU career scoring list. Fleming now ranks 39th in school history with 915 points. With an average of 12.2 points per game, she is 12th on that BG career chart.

• In her career, Fleming has made 136 three-point field goals, ranking 16th in school history. She is fifth on the BGSU career list for triples made per game (1.81). And, Fleming is 15th in school history in assists per game, with 2.56.

VELASCO EYES THE TOP-20
• Amy Velasco has had a stellar start to her senior season. Velasco has scored in double digits in every game, and is averaging a team-high 18.9 points per contest.

• Velasco had a game-high 28 points at Horizon League favorite Cleveland State (Nov. 12) and again led all players in scoring at Ohio State (Nov. 24), with a 24-point effort against the nationally-ranked Buckeyes.

• In the Falcons' four road games – which include a pair of games against top-15 teams – Velasco is averaging 22.5 points per outing.

• She moved into the top 25 on BGSU's career scoring list in the win over St. Bonaventure (Nov. 16), and moved up another spot during BGSU's trip to Daytona Beach. And, on Wednesday night (Dec. 18), Velasco moved up several more places, into 21st place on that list. With 1,227 career points, she is just six points shy of matching 20th-place Michelle Shade (1,233 points from 1991-95). The list of BG's top scorers can be found elsewhere in these very notes.

• Velasco has a career scoring average of 11.05 points per game, which currently places her 20th on that BGSU list.

AMY ALSO ACCUMULATES ASSISTS
• Amy Velasco, as mentioned, is now 21st on the BGSU career scoring chart, and the senior also enjoys a lofty perch on the school's assists list. Late last season, Velasco became just the 11th player in school history to reach the 300-assist plateau.

• In the Falcons' win over Arkansas, Velasco moved past Jaymee Wappes (387 assists from 1996-2000) and Tracy Pontius (387 dimes from 2007-11), and she now ranks seventh in school history with 399 career assists. Her next target is her former teammate, Kadie Hempfling, who had 432 assists from 2018-23.

• Obviously, Velasco is just one dime away from becoming only the seventh player in school history with 400 career assists.

• Velasco also ranks seventh in BGSU history in assists per game, with 3.59. If you were able to find the BGSU career scoring list elsewhere in these notes, you'll have no trouble finding the complete lists of both career assists and assists per game.

PASSING THEIR BOARDS (AKA, THIS HASN'T HAPPENED IN AT LEAST 30 YEARS)
• After out-rebounding Arkansas by 18 (41-23) in the final game of November, the Falcons began December with a 45-25 advantage on the boards against Xavier.

• Single-game records prior to the 1994-95 season are incomplete, but the Arkansas/Xavier stretch marks the first time since at least then that BGSU has had a +18 rebounding margin or better in back-to-back games.

• In that 30-year span (plus nine games), BGSU has had a rebounding margin of +18 a total of 30 times, counting the Arkansas and Xavier games.

• The Falcons out-boarded Marquette by 'only' eight, ending that streak. After losing the rebounding battle in each of the season's first two games, BG has out-rebounded the opponent in six of the last eight games, with four double-digit advantages in that time.

BE READY WHEN YOUR NAME IS CALLED
• The Falcons lost an estimated 126 player-games to injury last season. No fewer than 10 different players were unavailable for at least one game due to injury or illness. Despite those setbacks, BGSU, after being picked for fourth place in the 2023-24 MAC Preseason Poll, finished in a tie for fourth in the final MAC standings and advanced to national postseason play.

• This season, the Falcons have lost 31 player-games to injury heading into the Duquesne contest. Five different players have missed at least one game due to injury this year to date.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 6-4 on the season, and BGSU brings a four-game winning streak into Saturday's Duquesne contest. The Falcons are 4-0 at home, 0-4 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site games to date, and BG has a scoring margin of +2.5, along with a +6.2 rebounding margin.

• 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 picking up 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), before taking a break for fall semester exams.

• Most recently, the Falcons captured a second consecutive win over a Big East Conference foe, with a 64-62 victory against Marquette on Wednesday (Dec. 18). 

• Three players are scoring in double digits, with three others averaging at least seven points per game. Senior Amy Velasco leads the way with 18.9 ppg, and she also paces the Falcons with 5.2 assists per contest. Velasco has scored in double figures in all 10 games this season and in 11-straight games, dating to last season. And, the senior has averaged 7.5 assists over the last three contests.

• Sophomore Paige Kohler has 11.7 ppg, while fifth-year collegian Erika Porter is averaging 10.6 ppg along with 5.5 rebounds per game. Kohler has 4.7 rpg, and she has made a team-leading 20 three-point field goals, including seven in the win over Arkansas, while Porter is shooting 52.8 percent from the field.

• Sophomore Taya Ellis and freshman Lauren Gerken have 7.5 and 7.2 ppg, respectively. Fifth-year Falcon Lexi Fleming made her return to the court in the Xavier game and has averaged an even 7.0 points per contest in the last two games. Gerken is third on the team in rebounding (4.6 rpg) and three-pointers made (14), while Ellis is averaging a BG-best 8.8 rebounds per contest and also leads the Falcons with 1.2 blocked shots per outing.

• Freshman Johnea Donahue and junior Kendal Moxey have 5.6 and 5.5 ppg, respectively. Donahue leads BGSU with 2.7 steals per game, while Moxey is 23-for-39 (59.0%) from the floor and posted season-high totals of 12 points and six rebounds in the Marquette matchup.

• 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'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 in 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 Moxey and Kristiana Kulackovska, along with five freshmen – Donahue, Gerken, Laila Harrison, Brook Simpson and Taylor Wallace.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE DUKES
• Duquesne is 8-2 on the season, and the Dukes have won six consecutive games. The team's lone losses came on the road against Penn State and Kent State. Five of the wins during the current six-game streak have been by double digits, including a 90-66 win over Canisius on Sunday (Dec. 15).

• Megan McConnell leads the team in scoring and rebounding, with 19.2 ppg and 7.3 rpg. She was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Week on Monday, after a 35-point, nine-steal performance vs. Canisius. She leads the nation in steals per game (4.40).

• Head coach Dan Burt welcomed back six players from last year's team that finished 21-13 overall and 13-5 in the A-10 and advanced to the WNIT.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Duquesne, 5-1, in the all-time series, and BGSU has won the last three matchups. Most recently, the Falcons captured a 68-66 thriller last season (Nov. 27, 2023), as Amy Velasco hit a runner at the buzzer.

• BGSU is 4-0 at home and 1-1 on the road vs. the Dukes over the years.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the Duquesne game, BGSU will prepare for the Mid-American Conference opener.  The Falcons will take on Kent State on New Year's Day, in a 1:00 p.m. start at the M.A.C. Center.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will begin the home portion of the conference schedule against Eastern Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 4. That game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

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.