BGSU women’s basketball (6-6, 0-1) fell to Kent State (8-5, 1-0), the defending Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament champions, in their conference opener in northeast Ohio on Wednesday afternoon, 81-71.
“They’re a quality team, and night in and night out, it doesn’t really matter who it is, top or bottom in the MAC, if you don’t come ready to play, you stand great chances of taking a loss,” BGSU assistant coach John Nicolais said postgame on WBGU 88.1 FM. “So, trying to get our younger ones to understand that, especially when you have a team like Kent that is really, really good, you can’t afford to make a lot of mistakes, and if you do, they do a good job of exposing them.”
Both teams started the game slow, with BGSU pulling out to a 9-4 lead halfway through the first quarter. However, the Golden Flashes battled back to take a one-point lead after 10 minutes, 14-13.
The teams once again started the second quarter slow, with both teams trading leads. Kent State again took control of the game in the final two minutes of the second quarter, heading into the locker room with a three-point lead, 29-26.
While KSU tried to pull away out of halftime, BG senior guard Lexi Fleming scored seven straight points for the Falcons, tying the game at 33 apiece.
However, the Golden Flashes responded with a 9-3 run to take a 42-36 advantage.
Bowling Green continued to fight back after every Kent State score, trailing by seven points after three quarters, 54-47.
KSU dominated at the start of the final quarter, starting the period with a 10-2 run, extending their lead to 64-49.
“Played well at times and poor at others. We got to be a little bit more consistent with how we’re doing things,” Nicolais said. “Our highs can’t be too high, and our lows can’t be too low; we need a little bit more consistency.”
BGSU freshman guard Johnea Donahue responded with three straight layups, cutting the deficit to nine points with six-and-a-half minutes remaining, 64-55.
“We definitely turned it up in the fourth quarter, but obviously we can’t wait three-and-a-half quarters to get us going,” Fleming said postgame.
While the Falcons would come within four points down the stretch, Kent State pulled away and started 2025 with a 10-point conference victory.
“I think that really shows a lot about our fight, that we’re not going to give up, no matter the score, no matter the time, no matter how many girls are in foul trouble; anything like that, we’re always going to play hard and keep our fight going,” Fleming said.
BG struggled shooting, finishing just 36.1% (26-72) from the floor and 23.1% (6-26) from deep. Meanwhile, Kent State shot 43.1% (28-65) from the field and 28.6% (6-21) on three-pointers.
Both teams did their jobs at the charity stripe. Bowling Green shot 86.7% (13-15) on free throws, while KSU, the best free throw shooting team in the country, finished 86.4% (19-22) on their free chances.
However, Bowling Green won the rebounding battle over the Golden Flashes, the best rebounding team in the MAC, 44-38.
“We did some things well; we rebounding really well,” Nicolais said. “But coming up with 21 offensive rebounds and only getting 13 second-chance points, that was a little bit disappointing.”
Fleming had arguably her best showing since her return from her knee injury suffered against Indiana last season, finishing with a season and game-high 17 points on 6-16 shooting from the field, including three triples.
Bowling Green redshirt sophomore guard Jasmine Fearne, sophomore guard/forward Keiryn McGuff and sophomore guard Paige Kohler all scored double-digit points, finishing with 11, 11 and 10, respectively.
While senior guard Amy Velasco struggled shooting, going just 2-14 from the field, she tallied a team-leading eight assists, passing the 400-assist mark for her career.
Senior guard Jenna Batsch led the Golden Flashes with 15 points and four assists.
Next, BGSU will return home to the Stroh Center to battle undefeated Buffalo on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m.
“We looked a little uncharacteristic at times, and that’s a little frustrating. We’ll watch the film on it,” Nicolais said. “We got to clean things up and be ready for Eastern; they’ll be ready to play us for sure.”
Falcon Media Sports Network’s Kaden Knapp and Andrew Smith will have the call on WBGU 88.1 FM, beginning at 6:45 p.m. for pregame.
