Bowling Green women’s basketball began their quest for another Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship early Thursday afternoon. The Falcons enter the tournament as the #5 seed with their first matchup coming against the #4 Buffalo Bulls. The meeting marked the third between the two foes this season, with Buffalo winning both regular season matchups.

The Bulls came out firing in the first quarter outscoring the Falcons 19-10 behind a start start from the MAC Freshman of the Year, Kirsten Lewis-Williams.

Bowling Green found their stride in the second quarter and began chipping away at the Buffalo lead after strong performances from Olivia Hill and Sophie Dziekan. At the break the Bulls lead the Falcons 36-30.

At the start of the third quarter the Falcons came out of the locker room ready to play. Bowling Green went on a 14-0 run and had their best defensive quarter of the game and they would take a 48-46 lead into the final quarter.

The game would remain tight throughout the fourth quarter with constant lead changes from possession to possession but two costly Bowling Green turnovers with under 30 seconds left in the game would allow Buffalo to capitalize and come away with the win by a final score of 70-64.

Paige Kohler had an excellent MAC Tournament debut scoring 19 points and accounting for nine of Bowling Green’s 40 rebounds. Chellia Watson would lead the game in scoring for the Bulls with 24 points en route to Buffalo’s quarterfinal victory.

Following the contest, an emotional first-year Head Coach, Fred Chmiel, talked about his team.

“I love my team, they are great people who gave their all the entire season. The odds were stacking against us, all the time we had more people in street clothes than we did on the bench. Playing 30+ minutes a game, giving every ounce of energy they had…just phenomenal,” said Chmiel.