Toledo men’s basketball team improves to .500 mark with 87-59 victory over Chicago State

The Rockets are officially a .500 team, but for the most part didn’t look it in Saturday’s 87-59 victory over Chicago State.

Toledo’s men harassed the Cougars all afternoon to kick off a three-game homestand and reach a 4-4 mark for the season.

The only negative was a serious issue with ball security. UT turned the ball over 26 times, the most in a game since head coach Tod Kowalczyk’s first season in the Glass City.

“Offensively, you’ve got 22 assists on 31 baskets, that’s really good,” Kowalczyk said. “Obviously the turnovers are a major concern for us right now. That’s so uncharacteristic for this program; we value possessions.

“We’re just turning the ball over way too much and we’ve got to do a better job taking care of the ball.”

Turnovers aside, it didn’t take long for the Rockets to take control of the contest.

Toledo took the first lead of the game off a jumper from junior center Nathan Boothe. The Cougars (2-8) matched the score, but senior guard Justin Drummond added a basket of his own to keep the Rockets ahead early.

Chicago State freshman guard Montana Byrd then gave his team their first and only lead of the day, beating the shot clock for a trey that put the Cougars ahead 7-6 with 14:11 left in the half.

Chicago State held the lead until freshman guard Stuckey Mosley put Toledo back on top from the free throw line with 12:51 left in the half.

Sophomore guard Jordan Lauf then padded UT’s advantage with his first points of the day on a shaky dunk, the first of his collegiate career.

“It was two points, whether it was a dunk or it’s a layup,” Lauf said of the score. “It could have been better, but the ball went in.”

Lauf added a three-pointer with 9:30 left in the half to put Toledo ahead 20-12, then sank another trey with 4:47 left to give the Rockets a 33-24 advantage. He tied his career-best with 12 points, and added 6 rebounds, but like the rest of his team struggled with ball security, accounting for three turnovers.

“He’s been playing really well and not shooting the ball well for us,” Kowalczyk said of Lauf. “He’s a much-improved shooter than he was a year ago. That’s important for us to have him make shots. He gets open shots and tonight he made them, but his hustle plays, his offensive rebounds, just like everybody he just has to clean up those turnovers.

“His are just bad passes. He’s a good passer that was making bad decisions.”

Although Lauf had an impressive offensive performance, it was senior guard Juice Brown that put the team on his back. Toledo’s point guard notched four treys and was already over the double-digit scoring mark before halftime.

Juice finished with a game-high 19 points, adding four rebounds while going 5-for-7 from the three-point line.

“We played Rocket basketball tonight,” he said. “We played with each other and just got back to doing what we do.”

UT took a 44-29 lead into the locker room and did nothing but pad that advantage in the second half.

Drummond scored the Rockets’ first points out of halftime and senior forward J.D. Weatherspoon added a two-handed dunk to give his team a 48-31 lead with 18:17 to play.

Any momentum the Cougars managed was quickly snuffed out by Toledo. With 8:37 left to play, Weatherspoon nailed his second two-handed dunk of the game, then Juice sank yet another trey to give UT a 71-47 lead.

Toledo’s pair of freshmen guards also got in on the scoring action. Mosley combined with Kurt Hall for 18 points, with Hall giving the Rockets a 78-49 advantage off a one-handed dunk with 5:51 to play.

“We need our bench players to come in and get us a spark, get us a little rest,” Juice said. “Their job is just to bring energy and bring the intensity up and I think they did a good job of that tonight.”

While four of Toledo’s players finished with double digit scoring totals against the Cougars, five Rockets accrued three or more turnovers each.

Even with the victory, ball security was clearly the main topic of conversation between the head coach and his players after the game.

“Coach was just talking about that to us,” Juice said. “It’s just a fact of taking our time and just not trying to force things. We had a lot of unforced turnovers tonight, which we can clean up in practice. We’ll get that right.”

UT will return to the court next Saturday, Dec. 13, to host Arkansas State. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.