BOWLING GREEN — An opportunity unlike any other in program history awaits Bowling Green State University’s women’s basketball team on Tuesday night.
For the first time, BGSU will take on the top-ranked team in the country as the Falcons (6-2) will host No. 1 South Carolina (10-0) at 7 p.m. at the Stroh Center. It will also mark the first time BGSU has faced two top-five opponents in the same season after the Falcons squared off with No. 4 Iowa earlier this month on the road.
“It’s pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play the No. 1 best team. To have a sold-out crowd, I’m really, really excited that we’re going to have our main fans here,” BGSU senior Sophie Dziekan said. “These are the kind of games, these atmospheres, and competition that are going to prepare us for (Mid-American Conference) play too. So I think that it’s very exciting and will really help us in the long run.”
Tuesday night’s matchup will also be a reunion between first-year BGSU coach Fred Chmiel and his former team. Chmiel spent the previous eight seasons as an assistant at South Carolina under head coach Dawn Staley. The Gamecocks went 247-32 with a pair of NCAA national titles (2017 and 2022) during that span.
Chmiel and Staley’s relationship goes back to 2005 when Chmiel was an assistant for the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting, which Staley starred for as a player. Chmiel said his emotions will be “bittersweet” facing his former team and longtime friend in Staley, but once the game starts, it will be all business.
“It’s going to be an extremely challenging game, but there’s also the side of looking down the sideline at the other end and seeing former family members, basically,” Chmiel said. “You spent more time with them than you did your own family, and you know them like the back of your hand.
“To see those kids, some of them that you recruited and others that you had a pretty good relationship with, and now you’re competing against them. But I think it’s going to be much like coach Staley. As soon as the ball’s tipped up, she’s not going to see any names or faces on the other end. It’s going to be competitive. So we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Staley said during a news conference on Monday that the game between BGSU and South Carolina “came together out of need,” with the Gamecocks needing one more game to complete their schedule. She also mentioned that it will be a home-and-home series.
“That’s always a great thing when you’ve got coaches out there that you’ve got a coaching tree, you need a game, and they’ll more than likely come through,” Staley said. “And we wanted to go see him being in a place in which I know he’ll get the program to continue success because that was a successful program prior to him even getting the job. So they couldn’t have picked a more seasoned guy to take their team to higher heights.
“... I think he’s instilled the discipline because they’re really calculating, they’re really good at what they do, and they stay within what they do, and that’s the mark of a really good coached team.”
When the players take the court, a tall task will certainly await the Falcons.
Even after losing first-team Associated Press All-American Aliyah Boston and third-team selection Zia Cooke — a Rogers High School graduate — to the WNBA, South Carolina hasn’t skipped a beat this season.
The Gamecocks rank first in the country in blocks per game (10.3), field goal percentage defense (28.6 percent), rebounds per game (51.4), and scoring margin (42.6 points per game). South Carolina is also second in field goal percentage (52.09), third in rebounding margin (18.7), and fifth in scoring (92.5).
“Coach Staley’s been doing this for a long time. This is nothing new,” Chmiel said of South Carolina’s success this season. “We’ve had classes that, the A’ja Wilson class that left (in 2018), and then the 2019 class came in, the 2019 class leaves, and you’re left with all these McDonald’s All-Americans that can really play.
“And she finds a way to make it work. She fits the puzzle pieces together, and of course, they’re formidable.”
Of the 11 players on the South Carolina roster, eight are McDonald’s All-Americans. Seven players average at least nine points per game, led by 6-foot-7 senior center Kamilla Cardoso (14.4 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.5 blocks per game).
“Playing against a 6-7 person is definitely not easy, but I think it comes down to toughness, grit, wanting to work, pursuing the ball,” BGSU senior forward Olivia Hill said. “Doing all the little things like boxing out, making sure we’re consistent with that stuff, being physical, and trying to take away that height as much as possible will definitely be a challenge. But looking forward to it.”
After losing to Iowa 99-65 on Dec. 2 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in front of 14,998 fans — the largest crowd to ever see a BGSU women’s basketball game — the Falcons bounced back with a solid 69-48 victory at Wright State in front of 7,574 fans on Education Day. It was a single-game attendance record for the Raiders and the 13th-largest crowd to see a BGSU game.
“There’s 7,000 little kids screaming at the top of their lungs, and I thought we were very composed,” Chmiel said. “I thought we handled it, I thought we were very meticulous in some of the offensive possessions that we had. Defensively, we were really locked in.”
Dziekan, a 6-2 forward, had 12 points and 10 rebounds against Wright State after a strong performance vs. Iowa (nine points on 4 of 6 shooting). The play in the post — South Carolina has eight players at least 6-0 and BGSU five — as well as rebounding will be critical for the Falcons.
“You’ve definitely got to make sure that you don’t let them move their legs or anything, and it’s definitely going to be a lot of team rebounding, not just the bigs rebounding,” Dziekan said. “It’s going to take everyone to do it.”
First Published December 18, 2023, 7:06 p.m.
