After a sluggish start, the Bowling Green women’s basketball team picked up their 12th win of the season,
defeating Western Michigan, 77-53 Wednesday evening at the Stroh Center.
The Falcons are now 12-3, 8-2 in the Mid-American Conference. The Broncos fall to 2-9, 1-7.
The 12 wins are the most victories in the last seven years for the Falcon women’s team. It was in the
2013-14 season the last time the Falcons had over 12 wins.
“I was proud of our team’s ability tonight to sustain. … We stuck with it and our best quarter was our
fourth quarter,” BG head coach Robyn Fralick said. “I was proud of our ability to keep with it out of a
40-minute game.
“We are still a team that’s learning how to do that well. We are fortunate that we have that
opportunity,” Fralick added about the fourth quarter surge.
The Falcons were able to hold leads of 16-10 after the first quarter, 39-29 at the half and 56-47 after
three quarters.
Bowling Green then put the game away in the fourth quarter, out-scoring WMU, 21-6 with a 12-0 run to end
the game. The Broncos were 2-of-12 shooting in the fourth quarter while the Falcons were 8-of-18.
“I think it was just picking it up on defense with like little things … on rebounding, not giving them
second chances,” BG sophomore Elissa Brett said about the final three quarters.
Brett led the Falcons with game-highs of 17 points and eight rebounds. She scored eight points in the
opening quarter to help the Falcons get started.
“Elissa Brett was awesome. I thought she really impacted the game on both sides,” Fralick said.
Lexi Fleming recorded her 15th double-digit scoring game with 15 points. Nyla Hampton scored 12 points
and Angela Perry came off the bench to score 11 points.
With different players stepping up for the Falcons, Fralick said the trick to have success and have
balance “is that you don’t have to count on the same one or two people every night to have a good
outcome. That’s something that we are continuing to build. We are excited about our balance. We are
excited about the different sort of players that we have.
“On different nights we have different kids really step up,” she added.
Sydney Shafer led WMU with 18 points and added seven rebounds.
The Falcons now get ready to play Toledo Saturday at the Stroh Center with a noon start. BG posted a
69-57 win over the Rockets on Jan. 16.
“We just didn’t play them that long ago so it’s going to be a quick turnaround. We are going to see a lot
of things from that game that we think we can do better moving forward,” Fralick said about the UT game.
“We are just going to have to prepare for a very good basketball team in Toledo.”
NOTES: Brett’s 17 points tied her for her most points as a Falcon … BG had an outstanding game going
12-of-26 on 3-pointers with Hampton going 4-of-7 on triples … BG out-rebounded WMU 35-31 … The Falcons
scored 32 points in the paint, 10 points on fast breaks and 22 points from players off the bench.
WMU 10 19 18 6 — 53
BGSU 16 23 17 21 — 77
WMU
Jacobson, 3-4—10; Williams, 7-0—14; Spitzley, 2-1-2—9; Wagner, 1-0—2; Shafer, 3-3-3—18; Watters, 0-0—0;
Konkle, 0-0—0; Saxman, 0-0—0; Brooks, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 16-4-9—53.
BGSU
Brett, 4-3-0—17; Lewis, 3-0—6; Fleming, 2-3-2—15; Hempfling, 2-1—5; Hampton, 0-4-0—12; Parker, 0-2—6;
Perry, 5-1—11; Glowniak, 2-1—5; Trice, 0-0—0; Spielman, 0-0—0; M. Hill, 0-0—0; Clerkley, 0-0—0; Dever,
0-0—0. TOTALS: 18-12-5—77.
