Bowling Green women’s basketball head coach Fred Chmiel challenged his players after Saturday’s loss to Toledo.

In particular, Erika Porter.

“As good as she is, I think she can be better,” Chmiel said. “I think she can be an all-conference player, but it’s up to her.”

Turns out, Porter responded by registering her third double-double of the season against the Ohio Bobcats earlier Wednesday night in BGSU’s 69-52 win.

“It just means a lot to me that a lot is focused on me because I came from something where it wasn’t really focused on at all,” Porter said. I’m really thankful that Coach (Chmiel) can trust me to finish and make plays.”

Porter’s play was the highlight of the individual performances, but the overall team play was efficient, as BG was able to finish the night with 23 assists, their season-high.

“I thought we did a really good job of moving the ball and you know 23 assists is really good on 26 made field, so if we can eliminate some of those turnovers, it was a really good offensive game,” Chmiel said.

Both teams offensively got going early in the first quarter, ending the quarter deadlocked at 20 apiece. In the first alone, OU’s Bailey Tabeling knocked down three of her six total three-point field goals in the contest.

But in the second quarter, that is where BG gained their double-digit lead and never looked back, outscoring the Bobcats 18-4 to take a 38-24 lead into the halftime locker room.

For the green and white, they had quite an issue putting the ball in the basket, shooting a meager 1-13 from the field (7.69%).

“It was just really important for us to find shooters in that zone and just make sure that we were closing out and locking down on them and making sure that we were boxing out and getting those long rebounds and just getting to play team defense,” Olivia Hill said.

The second half was a half that although was comfortable in terms of the scoreboard, was a bit up and down statistically. 11 of BG’s 14 total turnovers occurred in that half, and OU was able to shoot an efficient 60% as a team.

But in the end, the only thing that matters?

Getting a win.

“As long as they keep growing I’m okay,” Chmiel said. “We’re moving forward, we continue to play hard, we’re going to play smarter and as long as we do that, I’m pretty proud and happy.”

Porter led the way with 19 points and 13 rebounds for the orange and brown. Three total Falcons reached double figures, as Amy Velasco added 14 points and eight assists, while Morgan Sharps had 12 points and seven rebounds.

Ohio, despite only mustering 52 points, did have a shining performance from Tabeling, who ended as the game-high scorer with 22 points. Laylay Fantroy added 11 points in the effort.

Winning a game like this, especially on Women and Girls in Sports Day, puts the cherry on top of a celebration sundae.

“It’s such a special day,” Hill said. “Sports is so cool. It’s such a awesome way to empower young women and just people in general, but especially for the way that women have come so far in sports. It has been so awesome and so impactful for us to see. We just had alumni day and we got to sit with the old alums and they were telling us how it was back then and so to have all the support and all the opportunities that we are so blessed now to have that they weren’t able to get, I’m super grateful for and I know all the girls on the team are too.”

Bowling Green stays home for another game, as the Falcons welcome the Troy Trojans out of the Sun Belt Conference for part two of the MAC-Sun Belt challenge on Saturday at noon. Join Falcon Media Sports Network’s Brandon Loe on 88.1 FM WBGU starting at 11:45.

To listen to last night’s game, click below to listen to the rebroadcast: