BOWLING GREEN — Bowling Green State University and Ball State’s women’s basketball teams had three intense matchups while being amongst the Mid-American Conference’s best squads last season.

There is a good chance their showdowns this year will be similar, but they will have a little bit of a twist.

When BGSU (9-4, 3-0 MAC) travels to Ball State (13-2, 3-0) on Saturday for their first meeting this season, the Falcons will be facing former teammate Nyla Hampton. The 2022-23 MAC defensive player of the year transferred to Ball State in the offseason after a noteworthy and record-breaking three years with the Falcons.

“We know her as a really good player. She’s a really good player and she does some really good things for them, and that’s what we have to prepare for,” first-year BGSU coach Fred Chmiel said. “There’s no emotional tie for me, especially, but I think they’ll have a little edge with it.

“I think anytime somebody leaves the nest and goes someplace else and transfers, I think there’s a little bit of, I don’t want to say animosity, but it’s always a challenge. It’s something that you want to perform well for. I think they’ll step up to that challenge, but for us as a staff and a team as a whole, we just prepare for a really good basketball player.”

Both sides are downplaying the reunion between Hampton and BGSU. Instead, they’re focusing on what will be a critical battle between two of the four teams unbeaten in MAC play.

“I think we’re focused on Ball State,” said BGSU senior guard Morgan Sharps, who was Hampton’s teammate the previous two seasons after transferring from Xavier. “They have good players, so I think we’re focused on, we have a road game, we have a good opponent. So we need to be mentally and physically locked into every single play.”

Hampton said after the Cardinals’ victory over Buffalo on Wednesday that she hasn’t had many thoughts or emotions about facing her former team.

“It’s just another game for me, really,” Hampton said.

In three seasons with BGSU, Hampton finished first in program history in steals per game (2.64) and second in total steals (243) in being a three-time MAC all-defensive team selection. The 5-foot-7 guard ranks fifth in the country in steals per game (3.8) this season while adding 8.1 points and 4.7 assists per game.

Hampton scored a team-high 16 points on 6 of 7 shooting (4 of 5 from 3-point range) in helping Ball State turn a 27-9 first quarter deficit vs. Buffalo into a 67-62 win.

If Saturday’s game is anything like those between BGSU and Ball State from last season, it will likely come down to the wire.

BGSU lost at Ball State 81-73 in last year’s MAC opener, then rattled off 11 straight wins. The Falcons edged the Cardinals 81-76 in overtime late in the regular season before turning a three-point halftime deficit into a 70-61 win in the MAC tournament semifinals.

The two teams have split the last eight meetings, with five of them being decided by single digits.

“I think each team knows that we’re going to get their best, and they’re going to get our best,” Sharps said. “So I think both teams really fight to the finish, and the team that can gut it out and make big plays and crucial, timely plays can win the game.”

Of the six combined losses between BGSU and Ball State, five have been to opponents ranked in the Associated Press top 25. The Falcons lost to South Carolina, Iowa, and Indiana, while the Cardinals fell to Notre Dame and Connecticut.

The Falcons have started MAC play strong without senior guard Lexi Fleming, who suffered a season-ending leg injury against Indiana in late December.

Numerous BGSU players have stepped up in her absence, including freshman Paige Kohler. The 5-8 guard, who has started every game so far in her BGSU career, is averaging 18 points in the three games without Fleming.

Kohler scored a game and career-high 28 points against Central Michigan, had 11 points vs. Western Michigan, then posted a game-high 15 points against Eastern Michigan in matching her double-digit scoring outputs from the previous 10 games.

“The last few games, the thing that really sticks out to me is she’s been composed. She hasn’t been frantic, she hasn’t had the freshman jitters,” Chmiel said. “She’s been pretty level-headed.

“Is she going to make mistakes? Yeah, but the way that she handles that and her composure throughout is the thing that I see the most.”

Kohler has also been a mentor to her fellow classmates on the roster, who have been getting significantly more playing time since MAC play started. Forward Taya Ellis and guard/forward Keiryn McGuff are averaging 20 minutes per game in MAC contests and have been key contributors off the bench, especially defensively.

“I’ve tried talking to them a little bit, just kind of give them that confidence because they may not have had this experience right in the beginning of the year,” Kohler said. “But I needed them to know that we all trust them, the coaches trust them, players on the floor trust them.”

First Published January 12, 2024, 8:25 p.m.