BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Western Michigan women's basketball team fell just short at Bowling Green on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 75-69 decision at The Stroh Center.
 
The Broncos (5-7, 0-2 MAC) led for the majority of the game but a rough third quarter saw the lead switch to the Falcons. Western Michigan battled back from a nine-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to tie it up at 63-63 with 6:42 to play in the game. BGSU took the lead again but WMU tied it up at 69-69 with 2:37 to play. Amy Velasco gave the Falcons the lead for good with 1:20 to play on a layup. After a missed opportunity, the Broncos were forced to foul, with the Falcons hitting all four of their free throws down the stretch.
 
Kaitlyn Zarycki led all scorers with 23. Alli Carlson and Jasmine Elder each had 10 points, while the Broncos got 18 points off of the bench with 13 coming from Nile Muguira Orbe (7) and Denali Craig-Edwards. The Broncos were held to 39.3 percent from the field (24-for-61), while the Falcons shot 51 percent (22-for-49).
 
Western Michigan opened up an early lead in the first quarter, extending it to as high as seven points after some crisp passing by Zarycki and Muguira Orbe led to a layup by Craig-Edwards, making it 18-11. The Falcons battled back to tie it up at 18-18 at the end of the first quarter.
 
A steal and a layup by Carlson gave WMU the lead back to open the second quarter. After BGSU's Paige Kohler responded on the other end, Zarycki had back-to-back layups to give the Broncos the lead for the rest of the half. Western Michigan created five turnovers in the second quarter to limit the hot-shooting Falcons and took a 37-34 lead into the half.
 
The Falcons took control in the third quarter, shooting 71.4 percent (10-for-14) from the field and holding the Broncos to just 30.8 percent (4-for-13). The teams went back and forth and were tied at 48-48 with 3:59 to play in the quarter, when Morgan Sharps hit two free throws to give Bowling Green its first lead since the first quarter. The Falcons ended the quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 59-50 lead into the fourth quarter.
 
Western Michigan continues MAC play on the road, traveling to Toledo to take on the Rockets on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The game can be streamed live on ESPN+ and heard live on the Bronco Media Network.