BGSU sophomore guard Amy Velasco. (File photo by Scott Grau/Sentinel-Tribune)
Bowling Green State University women’s basketball standout Amy Velasco has been named the Mid-American Conference’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Week, the league office announced on Wednesday. Velasco earns the honor for the first time in her Falcon career.
Velasco, a native of Centerville, Ohio, was a key part of the BGSU’s WNIT run which saw the Falcons win four games to advance to the semifinals of the 64-team tournament for the first time in school history.
Velasco, a 5-foot-7 sophomore guard, led the team in both scoring and assists last week, averaging 18.5 points and 5.0 assists per game as BGSU took on Florida and Columbia before a pair of huge crowds at the Stroh Center.
Velasco set a season high with 18 points in a win over Florida last Monday (March 27), then topped that two days later, scoring 19 points against Columbia in the semifinal round.
Against UF, she scored 14 of her 18 points in the third quarter alone, including her own personal 9-0 run that gave the Falcons the lead for good. She was 7-for-14 from the field in that win, adding five assists and a steal while playing a season-high 39:09 of the game’s 40 minutes.
Then, in the Columbia game, Velasco again was 7-for-14 from the floor and again dished out five assists, adding two steals as well.
Velasco had a school-record 27 assists during BGSU’s WNIT run, and helped the Falcons tie the school and MAC records for wins in a season.
In two seasons at BGSU, she has scored 588 points and dished out 201 assists. With an average of 2.87 assists per game, she ranks 13th on that BG career list.
In the classroom, Velasco has a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade-point average as a physical education and health education major.
The Falcons finished the 2022-23 season with a 31-7 mark, tying the school and Mid-American Conference single-season wins records.
BG went 14-4 in MAC regular-season action, advancing to the championship game of the MAC Tournament for the second time in three years, before earning the MAC’s automatic WNIT and winning four games to advance to the semifinal round of the 64-team national tournament.
