BGSU women’s basketball (10-8, 3-4) seeks to conclude its week in the win column against the Massachusetts Minutewomen (13-4, 5-2) after facing back-to-back losses to Mid-American Conference (MAC) teams.
Falcon Media Sports Network’s Lucas Kleimeyer will be broadcasting Bowling Green’s game against UMass, with tipoff set for 11 a.m. in the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Matchup History
The Falcons and the Minutewomen have played only twice in the two schools’ history, with the Orange and Brown winning both.
The first contest between BG and UMass took place during the 2012-13 season in Amherst, Massachusetts, as Bowling Green won 64-61. The last game between these two institutions was during the 2013-2014 season, when the Falcons cruised to an 86-46 victory.
Bowling Green
BG currently resides in the middle of the pack in the MAC conference after falling to a 3-4 conference record on Wednesday, and turnovers have been the primary talking point during the last two to three game stretch, with the Falcons eclipsing 22 against the Ohio Bobcats.
The Falcons are hoping to rebound after losing to Miami (OH) a week ago and falling to OU this past Wednesday night. The Bobcats were led by redshirt sophomore guard Bella Ranallo and junior guard Bailey Tabeling, who each scored over 20 points against the Falcons, winning 82-57.
Bowling Green labored on defense against the Bobcats, unable to find an answer to Ohio’s prolific shooting. The Bobcats currently rest as the second-best scoring team in the MAC. As a team, Ohio shot 58% from the field, along with an impressive 59% 3-point percentage as well.
On the other side, the Orange and Brown were stone cold shooting the ball, after shooting 33% from the floor, in addition to a woeful 27% 3-point percentage.
Sophomore forward Lauren Gerken and freshman guard Ky’Aira Miller led the Falcons in the scoring department with 10 points apiece. The next highest scorer for BG was junior guard Paige Kohler, who scored eight points on the night.
Kohler made history within the Falcons’ history book after surpassing 1,000 career points in her collegiate career against Ohio. Kohler becomes the seventh-fastest player to reach 1,000 career points in Bowling Green history.
Massachusetts
The Minutewomen look to respond against BG in this upcoming showdown after coming up short against the Ball State Cardinals, 78-60, in their last game. Massachusetts currently stands with the fourth-best record in the MAC as they hold a 13-4 record overall and with a 5-2 conference record.
Similar to Bowling Green, UMass struggled to score in its last outing against the Cardinals, finishing with a 35% field goal percentage. This season, Massachusetts is shooting on average 42.1% from the hardwood, which puts them middle of the pack in the MAC conference.
Sophomore guard Yahmani McKayle, who leads the Minutewomen in points per game, averaging 16.3 points a game, finished the contest with a game-high 20 points and five assists this past Wednesday.
Despite Ball State ranking fourth in the MAC for 3-point efficiency, UMass held the Cardinals to an abysmal 27% from the 3-point line on the night, which aligns with how difficult opposing teams have found shooting the three against Massachusetts this season. This year, opposing teams are connecting on only 37.1% of their 3-point attempts, which is the second-toughest rate among all MAC schools.
Falcon Four Players to Watch
Donahue couldn’t get it going offensively against Ohio, scoring only two points off 33.3% shooting. Yet she added three assists to her game, improving her offensive impact.
The Orange and Brown need Donahue to become a factor both offensively and defensively to spark energy across this BG team, which lacked confidence all night and clashed with OU.
Gerken has had an unbelievable start to 2026 after scoring in double figures in four out of five games this month.
This season, Gerken is averaging 7.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.
Even with Gerken shooting 24.3% from range this season, she recently found success shooting the deep ball by shooting 50% or above in three of five games in January.
Even though Olbrys only scored three points against Ball State during her last game, she is averaging the second-most points on the Minutewomen’s team.
Olbrys is logging 13.9 points per game along with a team-high 7.7 boards per contest. On top of that, Olbrys can shoot the ball, connecting on 51.2% of her shots, including a 34.6% 3-point percentage this season.
McKayle is by far UMass’ best all-around scorer on the team, scoring double-figures in all but one game this season.
However, McKayle tends to turn the ball over many times per outing. She recently turned the ball over four times against the Cardinals on Wednesday.
