The Bowling Green Falcons defeated the Wittenberg Tigers 102-47 in a Tuesday afternoon exhibition matchup at the Stroh Center.
Bowling Green’s defense was swarming the Tigers all game long, which allowed them to force a total of 19 turnovers. Head coach Fred Chmiel highlighted the defensive effort from the team today.
“Defensively is an area that we really wanted to concentrate on coming into this season because I thought that was one area where we could greatly improve last year,” said Chmiel. “The defense that we play, we like to create 25% of our offense off our defense, and I think that we did that today.”
The crowd was deafening at the Stroh during the game as it was filled with elementary kids for a School Day game.
“It is a great prep for hostile environments, they cheer the whole game whether we are scoring baskets or not,” stated Chmiel. “Thank you to the BG school system for letting them come to our game and helping us win and providing a ton of energy,”
Here’s how the game played out:
The Falcons started the game strong with back-to-back layups and an emphatic one-conversion from fifth-year forward Erika Porter. Porter started the game strong by scoring seven of the Falcon’s first eleven points by herself by layups and from the free throw line.
Pure dominance in the first quarter by the Orange and Brown as the first quarter ended with a score of 25-13. The offense for BG was balanced as points came from both Porter and senior guard Amy Velasco.
Bowling Green was smothering the Tigers in the first quarter on defense. The Falcons allowed only 13 points while holding Wittenberg to a 40% shooting percentage. The Orange and Brown forced seven turnovers in the first quarter.
The majority of the second quarter was back-and-forth buckets between the Falcons and Tigers.
The first half ended with a score of 45-27. The story of the first half was the Falcon’s ability to both defend and get points from the free throw line. BG managed to be 13-15 from free throws compared to the Tigers 3-8. The Falcons defense also forced 10 total turnovers and managed to get 13 points off of those turnovers.
Porter continued her dominance in the paint as she ended the first half with 15 points.
Freshman guard Johnea Donahue showed her lockdown defense as she stole the ball away from the Tigers four times in the first half.
The frontcourt duo of Porter and sophomore forward Taya Ellis continued to dominate the paint on both ends of the ball as each of them forced stops on defense and scored a couple of buckets to start the second half for the Orange and Brown.
BG’s offense continued to be hot in the third quarter as it was led by the trio of Porter, Velasco, and sophomore guard Paige Kohler. The trio allowed Bowling Green to build their lead all the way up to 35 at one point in the third quarter.
The effort and hustle of Donahue and Ellis on the defensive end is what allowed Bowling Green to build such a big lead. On every play, one of them was surrounding the ball, forcing the Tigers to make a mistake. The third quarter ends with a score of 74-39.
Bowling Green played beautifully on both sides of the ball. Freshman guard Brook Simpson was quite efficient to start the fourth quarter as she was setting up her teammates with some nice assists as well as a few nice points of her own.
The most impressive things from the Falcons were the defensive effort and the ability to get to the free-throw line. The Falcons were able to get 15 turnovers, with four blocks and eight steals. They were able to go 29-34, which is what helped create their huge lead in Tuesday’s afternoon game. The bench play was also key for the Falcons, as they secured 35 bench points in the win.
Bowling Green opens the regular season against the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles on Monday, Nov. 4, at the Stroh Center. Falcon Media Sports Network’s Lucas Kleimeyer and Kaden Knapp have the call on WBGU 88.1 FM.
