Rockets lose 81-78 overtime thriller to Western Michigan

During the University of Toledo men’s basketball team’s 81-78 overtime loss Saturday night to Western Michigan, the visiting Broncos played with a lead for almost 40 minutes.

UT was ahead for only 37 seconds of regulation and just 2:35 of the entire game.

It was just that kind of night for the Rockets.

“It was a home loss against another team that we think will be a contender,” said UT head coach Tod Kowalczyk. “It certainly wasn’t a lack of effort tonight. I do think we have to play smarter defensively, I think our communication early on was not good, got better and then late it was bad again.

“We’ve got to do a much better job with communication.”

UT (10-7, 2-2 MAC) fell behind quickly in the rematch of last season’s Mid-American Conference Championship game.

Western Michigan (12-5, 3-1 MAC) was the victor of that previous matchup. This time around, the Broncos had already scored twice by the time senior forward J.D. Weatherspoon put the Rockets on the board.

“They have good shooters,” Weatherspoon said. “People trail them, you try to deny them, but they just go right to the back door.

“We know teams will come and give us their best shots. We just have to stay disciplined.”

Senior guard Justin Drummond gave UT their first lead of the night from the charity stripe, but WMU senior guard Austin Richie put the Broncos back on top with free throws of his own.

“They are really good offensively,” Kowalczyk said of WMU. “They’ve got some really good skill players and they’ve got smart players. There are some things that, maybe looking back at it we made it too complicated for our players. That’s something we will reevaluate.”

The highlight of the rest of the half was Weatherspoon.

The senior forward nailed a two-handed dunk up the middle from Juice to cut WMU’s lead to 29-24. He then got a second dunk courtesy of Juice, who lobbed it from three-point land.

Even then, WMU was up 38-33, but Juice threw the ball up once more to a waiting Weatherspoon for a third two-handed dunk.

At halftime, Toledo had cut the Broncos’ lead to 38-35. Weatherspoon and Juice combined offensively for 25 points in the first half, with Juice finishing the night with a game-high 31 points.

Weatherspoon finished with 17 points and ten rebounds for a double-double and Drummond added 12 points, but no other Rocket came anywhere close to double figures. Particularly hurtful for Toledo was the lack of scoring from junior center Nathan Boothe, who fouled out with just over a minute to play in regulation.

“We simply have to have more out of Nathan,” Kowalczyk said. “Two points in 25 minutes, he didn’t play well tonight.

“He’s been playing so well, he really has been playing tremendous. Tonight he wasn’t himself.”

The Rockets spent most of the second half in WMU’s rear view mirror. The Broncos never trailed in the second half and Brown rattled off 10 points after halftime to finish with 20 for the game.

Sophomore forward Connor Tava paced the Broncos with 25 points, while Richie and sophomore forward Tucker Haymond each contributed 11.

With just under five minutes to play and Toledo within one of the Broncos, Richie nailed a trey and Haymond converted a turnover into a layup to give the visitors a 67-61 advantage.

Tava later gave WMU another two-point lead from the charity stripe, but with just over six seconds left Juice sank a jumper to pull the game into overtime.

“We just stick to what we do.” Juice said. “[Kowalczyk] called the plays he usually does and we just went to those plays.”

Sophomore guard Jordan Lauf opened the extra period with a trey from the corner to give the Rockets a 73-70 lead.

Lauf later widened another Toledo lead to a basket, going 1-for-2 from the free throw line, but Tava tied the game up 76-76 with a layup and gave WMU a one-point edge from the charity stripe.

Later, WMU sophomore forward Mario Matasovic – who finished the night 5-for-5 for ten points – gave the Broncos the last lead they needed off a two-handed dunk.

With just 22.3 seconds to play in overtime, the Rockets trailed WMU 81-78. Juice would take one last three-point shot, but with Broncos in his face he never had a chance to connect.

“I pretty much had two guys on me, couldn’t get a good look, didn’t see any of my teammates open,” he said. “I just tried to chuck it up.

“(This loss leaves) a nasty taste. Obviously, we wanted this win a lot, we were looking for some revenge for last year, but we just came up short.”

This marks UT’s second conference loss of the season, with both defeats occurring at home.

“Lot of games left,” Kowalczyk said. “We are a good road team and we are a resilient team.

“We will bounce back.”

Toledo will have a few days to regroup before traveling to Kent State to face the Golden Flashes on Wednesday. Tip off is set for 7 p.m.