DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A cold start to the second half doomed the Toledo men’s basketball team and left the Rockets on the short end of an 80-45 decision to UC San Diego (5-2) in Saturday’s championship game of the Boardwalk Battle. The defeat snapped the Rockets’ five-game winning streak.
“UC San Diego plays a very good matchup zone and we never figured it out tonight,” Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “When you play against a zone like that the ball has to be popping and we didn’t do that. Give them credit as well. They also made some tough shots and played exceptionally well. We’ll just regroup, get our edge back and move on.”
Sophomore Sonny Wilson and junior Seth Hubbard led Toledo offensively with 10 points apiece. Wilson was named to the Boardwalk Battle’s all-tournament team, while Hubbard grabbed five boards to tie sophomore Sam Lewis for the team rebounding lead.
Toledo (5-2) shot just 30.2% from the field and 6-of-25 from three-point range. The Rockets also committed a season-high 17 turnovers after registering just nine miscues in their previous two contests.
UC San Diego converted 56.1% of its shots, including a scorching 65.5 mark in the final 20 minutes.
Tournament MVP Tyler McGhie led the Tritons with a game-high 27 points. He was 10-of-16 from the field and 7-of-11 from three-point range.
Toledo trailed by a 34-25 margin at intermission, but the Tritons opened the second half with a 19-2 run that the Rockets couldn’t recover from.
HOW IT HAPPENED
FIRST HALF
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- The Rockets held a 9-7 lead after six minutes following Javan Simmons’ driving layup.
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- Seth Hubbard’s three-pointer put Toledo in front, 12-11, with 11:28 left in the half.
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- UT took its last lead in the contest on Sam Lewis’ triple just over two minutes later.
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- Tyler McGhie’s jumper gave the Tritons their largest lead of the half, 34-23, before Simmons’ two free throws put the Rockets down 34-25 at intermission.
SECOND HALF
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- UC San Diego scored the first 11 points of the second half to take a 45-25 advantage
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- After a pair of free throws from Sonny Wilson, the Tritons went on an 8-0 run to extend their lead to 53-27.
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- The closest the Rockets came the remainder of the contest was 22 points.
UP NEXT
Toledo will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 30 when it hosts Oakland in Savage Arena. Tip-off time is set for 7:00 p.m. with streaming on ESPN+.
This article was published at utrockets.com on 2024-11-24 02:05:00
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