Bowling Green’s Lexi Fleming, left, reaches for the ball while guarding Ohio University’s Caitlyn Kroll Saturday, February 6, 2021, during the first half of an NCAA basketball game in Bowling Green.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
The Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team has been picked to finish third in the Mid-American Conference race in the 2022-23 season in voting by the league’s 12 coaches.
Additionally, both 5-foot-5 junior guard Lexi Fleming and 5-9 senior forward Kadie Hempfling were selected to the preseason All-MAC Second Team.
Toledo was the choice of the coaches to win the MAC regular-season crown in ‘22-23. The Rockets received 143 points and 11 of the 12 first-place votes. Ball State garnered 130 points and the other first-place vote, with the Falcons getting 109 points, Kent State 103 and Northern Illinois 99.
Fleming, a native of Cincinnati (Mercy McAuley), recently was named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Preseason Watch List.
She returns after missing the 2021-22 season due to injury. In the ‘20-21 campaign, Fleming was named the MAC Freshman of the Year, and also was named to the All-MAC Second Team.
Fleming played in 27 of BGSU’s 29 games in 2020-21, starting all 27, and led the team in scoring with 15.9 points per game.
She also paced the Falcons in minutes played, free throws made and attempted, FT percentage, steals and steals per game in her initial season in Northwest Ohio.
She made 57 three-point field goals that winter to rank second on the Falcons, and also was fourth on the team in assists. Fleming’s total of 67 steals was the highest by a freshman in BGSU history.
Hempfling, a native of Ottawa (Ottawa-Glandorf), was named to the All-MAC Third Team last season, earning that honor for the second consecutive year.
She led the Falcons in scoring, with 11.7 ppg, and also paced BGSU in field-goal percentage while ranking fourth in rebounding, assists and steals.
Hempfling, the lone Falcon to start all 33 games last season, led the team in plus/minus rating, at plus-93. She hit 51 three-point field goals and shot 43.2% from the arc.
Entering the 2022-23 season, she has played in 123 games, making 122 total – and 122 consecutive – starts.
Hempfling enters the 2022-23 season ranked fifth in BGSU history in career games started, and she is 22nd in career scoring (1,206 points), 10th in rebounding (773) and sixth in assists (420).
She is the only player in BGSU women’s basketball history with at least 1,000 points, 700 rebounds and 400 assists.
