Toledo gets back on track

The University of Toledo men’s basketball team rolled to an 89-62 home victory over Western Michigan to snap a three-game losing streak in a game where the Rockets never trailed.

Toledo (13-9, 4-5 MAC) now moves into third place in the Mid-American Conference West division and are just two games behind Central Michigan for the top spot.

“That was a must-needed [sic] win for a lot of reasons,” said head coach Todd Kowalczyk. “We lost our confidence and swagger and just needed something good to happen for these guys.”

The top four scorers in the MAC: senior Nathan Boothe (UT), juniors Jonathan Williams (UT) and Tucker Haymond (WMU), and sophomore Thomas Wilder (WMU), were all on display in Savage Arena.

Williams led the Rockets with a game-high 24 points, just two below his career high. Joining him in double-figures was the leading scorer in the MAC, Boothe, with 16 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth consecutive double-double and ninth for the season.

Junior Jordan Lauf and freshman Nate Navigato contributed 12 points apiece. Junior Zach Garber grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds to go along with 7 points. Sophomore Stuckey Mosley finished with a career-high 9 assists to go with 9 points.

Of the 11 Rockets who saw playing time, 10 registered a score in the 27-point blowout.

Leading the Broncos was second-place overall scorer in the MAC, Thomas Wilder, with 20 points. Joining him in double-figures for WMU was freshman Josh Davis with 12 points.

Toledo ultimately shut down Haymond, who came into the game fourth in the MAC in scoring, averaging 17.4 ppg. Haymond finished with 4 points on 1-of-7 shooting.

“We had two really proven defenders on him all night,” said Kowalczyk, referring to Williams and Lauf.

Toledo out-rebounded the Broncos 42-20 giving up just 4 second-chance points the entire game.

Williams got things started with a jumper in the lane for the first points of the game. Wilder tied things up at two apiece and that would be the closest WMU would be to taking the lead.

Boothe scored the next 7 points for UT followed by a trey from Williams as the Rockets jumped out to an early 12-2 lead in the first five minutes of the contest.

Toledo continued to keep the pressure on, and after back-to-back threes by Navigato, UT took a 21-6 lead heading into the under-12-minute media timeout.

Williams gave UT its largest lead of the half with a deep trey on the wing making the score 42-21 with 2:26 to go. Western made some noise in the final 90 seconds of the half with 7 quick points from Wilder to cut the Rockets lead to just 12 but a Williams layup at the buzzer gave UT a 44-30 lead at intermission.

Just like the first half, Williams and Boothe got things going for UT, combining for the first 10 points of the half with 5 points apiece.

The Rockets never looked back and led by as many as 36 points in the second half giving Kowalczyk an opportunity to play some younger guys.

Freshman walk-on Fred John Jr. was a recipient of that, scoring his first collegiate field goal in the game with 1:01 left to play in the game.

“For whatever reason, we play better on the road,” Kowalczyk said. “I think sometimes we play nervous at home because we want to do so well for our unbelievable fans and it causes us to play tight.

“On the road we play free.”

Toledo will take to the road for their next two games, traveling to Kent State on Feb. 6 and Buffalo on Feb. 9 before returning home to host Miami (OH) on Feb. 13. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. for all games.