Rockets blow past Flames and Crusaders

Over the weekend, the University of Toledo women’s basketball team defeated the University of Illinois in Chicago, Illinois, 79-51 on Thursday and Madonna University 99-47 on Sunday. The wins improved the Rocket record to 5-1 this season.
“We were tested early in both games,” said head coach Tricia Cullop. “I thought that UIC and Madonna gave us good fights, and for that I’m glad. We need to be put into situations where we need to learn from it and I thought we did, and I thought second halves that our depth and pace of play really paid off.”
Against UIC, second-year Mikaela Boyd led the UT offense with 16 points, eight assists and four steals. Boyd’s performance also included a 50 percent (6-of-12) shooting percentage from the field, which resulted in her fifth game where she scored in double digits.
Helping in the Rocket offensive attack were second-year Olivia Cunningham, who scored 14 points, and fourth-year Janice Monakana, who scored 10 points. Toledo, as a team, shot 48.5 percent (32-66) from the field and had 43 rebounds.

The Rockets established a physical presence, scoring 48 of of their 79 points from the paint. Their defense held UIC to only a 35.8 (19-of 53) shooting percentage in the game. UT also forced 32 turnovers and capitalized, scoring 31 points off of turnovers.
The game started out slow for the Rockets as they trailed 16-12 after the first quarter, shooting just 3-of-18 from the field in the span. The women came out in the second quarter, outscoring UIC 14-0 to take a 26-16 lead with 6:39 left in the first half. UT hit six of their first seven shots during the run.
The Rockets went into halftime with a 39-30 advantage and never left their lead drop to seven in the half. UT scored the first 10 points of the second half and ended up having a 69-35 lead at the end of the third quarter, outscoring the Flames 25-5. The Rockets let their lead drop a little in the fourth quarter but still cruised end the game with a 28-point win.
Against Madonna, third-year Jay-Ann Bravio-Harriott led the Rockets in scoring with 20 points, a season high. She knocked down six of eight shots from three-point range.
“I felt really comfortable,” Bravio-Harriott said, “Me and Halee went up earlier to get some shots up and I just felt good then, and then we’ve just been working a lot individually in practice on our shooting and the fact that my teammates had confidence in me to pass the ball a lot kinda helped, but yeah, today I felt really good.”
Other notable Rocket scorers were Monakana, with nine points, and first-year Mariella Santucci, with 12 points. Toledo shot a team total of 54.7 percent from the floor, with a 61.9 shooting percentage from three-point range. They then again held the advantage in the paint, scoring 36 points compared to Madonna’s 16.
Madonna took an early 19-16 lead with 1:51 left in the first quarter off of eight points from third-year Becca Sabol. UT answered back in the second quarter with three straight three-pointers from Barvo-Harriott, giving the Rockets a 30-21 lead with 7:28 left to go in the half. Toledo scored eight of the last nine points to close out the half with a 47-29 advantage.
The game got out of hand with two threes from Bravo-Harriott, increasing the lead to 61-37 at the 6:05 mark in the third quarter. UT ended up coasting for the rest of the game, ending the score at 99-47.
“We were glad to get the win,” Cullop said. “This game was scheduled because we had a tournament game cancelled and we had to pick up a game, so we’re very fortunate to play a game during a lull, and you don’t want to get complacent.”
The women Rockets will next play on Friday, Dec. 9, against in-state foe Dayton. The game is set for tip-off at 11 a.m. at the University of Dayton Arena.