Offense dominates in men’s 101-72 exhibition victory over Findlay

The University of Toledo men’s basketball team’s 101-72 victory over Findlay in Saturday’s exhibition game at Savage Arena played out like the Rockets were holding an offensive clinic.

Toledo never allowed the Oilers to lead in a game Findlay lost control of quickly. Eight of the ten UT players that took the court scored and four of them finished with double-digit point totals.

Junior center Nathan Boothe and sophomore guard Jonathan Williams led the Rockets’ offensive attack. Boothe finished with a game-high 21 points and Williams – in his first game as a full-time starter – scored 20 points against the Oilers.

“The ball was feeling good today,” Williams said of his performance. “Just my jump shot I missed the first two threes and I was just trying to focus on getting the ball to the basket.”

With 16:18 left to play in the first half, Boothe got Williams to the basket by chucking the ball from one side of the court to the other, catching the sophomore guard in stride. Williams sank an easy layup to put Toledo up 11-2 over Findlay.

Senior forward J.D. Weatherspoon followed those points up with his first two-handed dunk of the night to pad UT’s lead.

The Rockets weren’t close to letting up, as sophomore forward Aubrey Williams put Toledo up 21-10 with a score from under the basket.

“We had a size advantage between me, [Weatherspoon], [sophomore center] Zach [Garber] and Williams,” Boothe said. “We wanted to get the ball out early and often, which we did.”

Findlay eventually made it into double digits, but after UT sophomore guard Jordan Lauf scored his first points of the day, the Rockets held a comfortable 25-11 advantage.

Senior guard Juice Brown capped off the first half with a jumper that put the Rockets up 50-34 over the Oilers. Midway through the contest, two Toledo players – Weatherspoon and Boothe – had already notched double digit scoring performances.

By the final buzzer, only one Oiler – sophomore center Quaran Jones – had reached double digit scoring.

“I thought we had a really good start to the game, great energy,” said UT head coach Tod Kowalczyk “I thought through the first half we played really well on the defensive end of the floor. The second half I thought there was a stretch of maybe five or ten minutes where we had maybe a little bit of a lull.”

Senior guard Justin Drummond seemed in a lull for most of the game. Drummond – whose only points of the first half came from the free throw line – flew to the basket for a dunk to put Toledo up 61-41 with 15:17 left to play, but he finished the game with only nine points.

On defense, Drummond was much more successful, notching seven rebounds.

The Rockets continued to receive a healthy dose of production from last season’s trio of freshmen. Garber went three-of-four from the free throw line, finishing with nine total points and five rebounds.

Lauf, who briefly went to the bench with an injury during the second half, came back out with just over eight minutes remaining to sink a long jumper. He finished with six point.

Williams followed up his fellow sophomore’s score with a trey to put the Rockets up 78-57. In his first game as a full-time starter, he racked up three scores from the trey line.

“It felt good just to get my confidence up and to please my coaches and teammates,” Williams said of his performance.

Garber put Toledo over 100 points from the free throw line with less than a minute left, effectively icing a game the Rockets’ offense controlled from start to finish.

“[These games are] really not, from my point of view, about winning or losing,” Kowalczyk said. “All I care about today is two things: stay healthy and did we get better today. I thought today we got better; I thought we played well.

“Overall, good game, we got a lot of good minutes out of a lot of the bench guys and I look forward to playing real games now.”

Toledo will open the regular season next Sunday, Nov. 16, hosting Northern Arizona. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.