BSGU women’s basketball (17-12, 10-7 MAC) earned a huge 84-61 win at home against Kent State (19-11, 11-6 MAC). The Orange and Brown started the game seven of 10 from beyond the arc to take an early 30-18 lead and never looked back.
“I think we moved the ball quickly and didn’t let it stick, so we were able to get ahead of the possession and get open looks early,” assistant coach John Nicolais said following the game.
Fifth-year guard Lexi Fleming led the charge knocking down a career-high six threes on nine attempts.
Her 21 points in the first broke a program record for points in a quarter, the previous record was held by Carly Santoro in 2017, who scored 17 in a quarter.
“My shot was feeling good, seeing the ball go through one or two times,” Fleming said in the postgame. “I got the hot hand and my teammates did a great job of finding me.”
Fleming finished the opening ten minutes with 21 points and agreed with a reporter when asked if that was the most confident she’d ever been shooting the ball.
“She came out with a ball on fire and it gave us great momentum for the whole rest of the game,” Amy Velasco told the press after the contest.
In the first quarter, the team dished out seven assists. Senior Amy Velasco and sophomore Paige Kohler accounted for three each.
“We were sharing the ball really well in that first first quarter, which we have to carry on in the other three quarters. It started off really well. We got to keep the momentum throughout the entire game,” Fleming said.
Kent State took advantage of BG cooling off in the later quarters, and at one point cut their deficit to nine, but Bowling Green kept hitting timely shots in large part due to Fleming.
“She didn’t force it, she passed it to her teammates and the open player and had a high assist total. When we do that kind of stuff, we’re really good,” head coach Fred Chmiel said.
The Orange and Brown finished the game 12 of 25 from three point range, and have now hit a combined 30 triples in their last two home games.
They will look to carry their positive momentum on the road in the regular-season finale against Eastern Michigan on Saturday, March 8.
