BGSU women’s basketball (10-8, 3-4) will try to put its 82-57 loss to the Ohio Bobcats (12-5, 6-1) behind them as quickly as they can.
The Falcons suffered their second straight loss and their third home defeat in a row. In a game, Bowling Green was not ready to go from the jump.
“I feel like our fans deserve an apology,” said head coach Fred Chmiel postgame. “It’s not a reflection of our university or our community, and I’m gonna wear it because I don’t feel like we were prepared to come out and play. I thought our assistant put out a good scout. I thought we prepped fairly well. It’s my job to get our team ready to play, and clearly they weren’t. And I take full ownership of that.”
Ohio, which came into the game as the best 3-point field goal shooting team in the Mid-American Conference (MAC), shot nearly 60% from three, on 13-22 attempts from beyond the arc.
“They made a lot of shots, they knocked down a lot of threes,” said junior guard Paige Kohler. “They did a good job defensively of packing in the paint and getting back to closeouts on shooters.”
At halftime, it was a 20-point deficit for the Orange and Brown, 46-23 in favor of the Bobcats.
The message from Chmiel? Fight.
“Come to compete. [We] just need competitors on the floor,” said Chmiel. “Mistakes are going to happen; basketball is not a mistake-free game. But the level of intensity and focus needs to be better, and it starts with me.”
The Falcons were held to just 33% shooting on 19-57, while going 27% from beyond the arc. Bowling Green was able to commit Ohio to turn the ball over more, 25-22, but the Bobcats recorded 33 points off turnovers to just 26 for BG.
Heading back on the road now to take on UMass, Kohler preaches unity as a team.
“These are the moments where we have to come together most. Our togetherness is our biggest factor right now. Just coming together as a team, as a coaching staff, all as one. I feel like after losses, sometimes you tend to go away from each other, but this is when we have to get tighter. I know it’s going to be kinda hard to look at the film and watch that back, but there’s obviously a lot of things you can take away from losses and things we can improve on for the next game.”
Bowling Green will tip off against UMass on Sunday, Jan. 25, for the first time in program history. Falcon Media Sports Network will have the call on WBGU 88.1 FM at 4:00 p.m.
