The great band “The Doobie Brothers” have a saying in one of their more popular hits-
“Whoa, oh listen to the music!”
In the case of Bowling Green women’s basketball, the music is starting to get a bit louder for them this season, which is that a depleted bench is putting head coach Fred Chmiel in a tough spot from the opening tip with his team.
But that is not stopping the Falcons from giving their best efforts.
“They’re used to it; they’re conditioned for it,” Chmiel said postgame.
That is true for the presence, but for the consistency, that is still been a struggle for the orange and brown, who through 20 turnovers were unable to challenge the rival Toledo Rockets in Saturday’s 88-68 loss.
“We just got to stay composed and stay together, then the rest of it will take care of itself,” Amy Velasco said.
BGSU did not lead for a single second in the part two edition of the Battle of I-75, as the Rockets were able to jump out to an early 17-12 lead after the first quarter, the closest BG ever got to eclipsing UT.
From there, the midnight blue and gold were able to grab ahold of a consistent nine-to-double-digit lead throughout the rest of the contest, headlined by senior Quinesha Lockett‘s 26 points.
“I feel like I got a feel for the game,” Lockett said. “I got really comfortable out there. First half I was just trying to get a feel for the game and not rush stuff and let things come to me, and I just think that stuff just came to me more so in the second half.”
Some of the biggest difference makers in the game were headlined by the turnover discrepancy, which ended in a -10 ratio for BG (20 TO’s BG, 10 TO’s UT). Another area of discrepancy was in the bench points category, where BG was only able to muster two, while Toledo ended with 30.
At the end of the day though, the bench concerns for BG is not something new, so the team will have to handle the adversity the rest of the way.
“We’re not going to make any excuses,” Chmiel said. “We did a really good job the last three days of breaking the press against our practice guys, who offer a pretty good press. But we got into the game and didn’t quite execute the way we did in practice, so that’s my fault.”
For the Falcons, Morgan Sharps led the way in scoring with 22, which puts her five points away from reaching the 1,000 point mark. Velasco added 20 of her own while Paige Kohler had 14.
BGSU now makes the trip east to Akron to face the Akron Zips on Wednesday, Feb. 21, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. Join Falcon Media Sports Network’s Brandon Loe on the call on 88.1 FM WBGU.
For more stories related to BGSU Athletics, follow Falcon Media Sports Network on X (@bg_fmsn).
