UT bounced in opening round of MAC tourney

The University of Toledo men’s basketball team couldn’t hang on to a late second half comeback, falling 69-60 to Eastern Michigan in an exciting first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament at Eastern on Monday, March 7.

“I thought this was a very physical game,” said Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk. “I’m proud of the guys and the way they responded. Like many games this year, coming down the stretch we were right there.

“Sometimes you just have to give your opponent some credit.”

With the loss, Toledo’s (17-15, 8-10 MAC) season came to an end on a four-game losing.
In senior Nathan Boothe’s last game in the midnight blue and gold he led the Rockets with a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season.

Joining him in double-figures were sophomore guard Stuckey Mosley, junior guard Jonathan Williams and freshman forward Nate Navigato with 12, 11 and 10 points respectively.

The Rockets struggled in the first half shooting 29.2 percent from the field and knocking down just a single three-pointer. The second half proved better for UT, draining 6-of-14 from beyond the arch and shooting 51.7 percent from the field.

“First half turnovers put us in a hole,” Kowalczyk said.

Toledo finished the contest with 19 turnovers, seven more than Eastern, a reoccurring problem in UT’s four-game losing streak.

Eastern was led by Raven Lee with 19 points and Tim Bond who finished with 15 points but came up big late for the Eagles.

James Thompson IV finished with 11 points to go along with a game-high 13 rebounds for EMU.

Both teams struggled in the opening minutes with the score tied at 5 a piece at the first media timeout.

After the break, Eastern broke out on a 9-0 run which forced a timeout by Kowalczyk down 14-5 with 12:30 remaining in the opening period.

Williams eventually ended EMU’s 11-0 run with a trey from the wing but the Eagles got things going again quickly.

After an air ball by freshman Jordan Sanford, Lee got the ball on an Eastern fast break and pulled up from the top of the key to drain a three. The Rockets found themselves trailing 25-12 with 5:38 to go.

The Eagles took their largest lead of the game, 36-16, following senior forward Brandon Nazione’s three-pointer with two minutes before halftime.

UT trailed at the break 36-20.

The second half proved to be much different for Toledo.

In the opening minute Mosley accounted for six quick points to cut the lead to six. At the 17:51 mark Boothe knocked down a jumper to cut the lead to single-digits for the first time since the opening minutes of the first half.

Over the next eight minutes the Rockets struggled to cut the lead any closer than 9 but fought hard to keep the gap close, never letting the Eastern lead grow larger than 12.

Sanford sparked a 11-2 run with a three at the 9:26 mark, letting the Rockets cut the 20-point first half deficit to just 3, 53-50 with 5:41 to play.

“We started making shots against that zone and things opened up for us a little bit,” Kowalczyk said.

Williams tied things up for UT with a deep three with just under three minutes to play. Seconds later Sanford took the lead the with a fast break layup, Toledo’s largest lead of the game.

“I’ll think about the turnovers we had but I thought we played hard and stuck together,” Williams said.

The Rockets wouldn’t score again until 23 seconds to play in the game.

Eastern closed out the game on a 14-3 run to end Toledo’s season.