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TOLEDO, OH - Freshman G Jake Barnett drilled five three-pointers, but it wasn't enough as Toledo's men's basketball team dropped a 61-41 decision to Western Michigan in MAC West Division action at Savage Arena. Barnett was 5-of-10 from behind the arc on his way to scoring a team-high 17 points, and junior F Justin Anyijong tallied 11, but the Rockets bench was outscored 20-5 and the team could not overcome an early surge by the Broncos to start the second half. Toledo scored the game's opening basket -- a three-pointer from Anyijong -- but went scoreless over the next 4:49 as the Broncos scored 11 unanswered. Barnett quelled the scoring drought with a three-pointer from the top of the arc, and later, a Jay Shunnar steal at midcourt set up a nifty feed from Barnett to Anyijong for a three-point play to make it 13-11.
The Broncos extended their lead to seven points two more times in the half, but Toledo answered both times, and a three-pointer by Barnett cut the Rockets' deficit to 25-21 at intermission. Western Michigan opened the second half by scoring the first eight points, and its defense put the clamps on the Rockets, limiting Toledo to just eight points in the opening 13 minutes of the frame as the lead eventually swelled to 25 points.
"The first four minutes of the second half were the story of the game," Toledo Head Coach Gene Cross said. "We lost the game because we didn't play well enough on defense or rebound the basketball in the second half. Western Michigan took control right away, and we couldn't come up with an answer." With the loss, Toledo fell to 3-26 on the season, while Western Michigan improved to 15-13. The Rockets are back in action on Saturday, Feb. 27 in the second part of a doubleheader with the women's basketball team. The women will tip off at 4:30 p.m. in Savage Arena against Ball State, with men's tipoff following at 7 p.m. as one ticket is good for admission to both games.
Official Basketball Box Score
Western Michigan vs TOLEDO
2/24/10 7:00 p.m. at Savage Arena (Toledo, OH)
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VISITORS: Western Michigan 15-13 (7-7 MAC)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
11 HUTCHESON, Nate..... f 3-5 1-1 0-0 3 1 4 2 7 2 2 1 1 17
24 LAWSON, Donald...... c 3-7 0-0 0-0 2 3 5 0 6 1 0 0 0 21
03 McLEMORE, Martelle.. g 7-9 4-6 1-1 1 4 5 0 19 3 0 0 1 23
05 DOUGLAS, Mike....... g 1-1 0-0 2-2 0 1 1 1 4 3 3 0 3 22
23 KOOL, David......... g 1-4 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 1 23
01 WARD, Demetrius..... 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 2 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 12
10 POKLEY, Brandon..... 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 8
12 THOMAS, Ed.......... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 3
15 WOLF, Alex.......... 2-3 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 4 5 1 0 1 15
21 WHITTINGTON, Shayne. 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 1 2 0 1 0 0 9
25 BROWN, David........ 1-4 0-2 0-0 0 4 4 2 2 0 1 0 0 17
32 CONTEH, Muhammed.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 10
33 WHITFIELD, Flenard.. 6-10 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 0 12 0 2 0 1 20
TEAM................ 2 2
Totals.............. 26-48 6-14 3-3 7 27 34 14 61 16 13 1 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-22 50.0% 2nd Half: 15-26 57.7% Game: 54.2% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-7 42.9% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 42.9% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 3-3 100 % Game: 100 % 0
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HOME TEAM: TOLEDO 3-26 (0-14 MAC)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
01 ANYIJONG, Justin.... f 3-15 2-8 3-3 0 0 0 0 11 1 1 1 1 32
42 DRESSLER, Jordan.... f 2-4 0-0 2-2 3 5 8 1 6 0 4 0 0 33
11 BASTFIELD, Larry.... g 1-4 0-2 0-2 2 1 3 2 2 2 3 0 0 29
23 GRIFFIN, Malcolm.... g 0-0 0-0 0-2 2 1 3 0 0 3 1 0 2 19
30 BARNETT, Jake....... g 6-15 5-10 0-0 0 2 2 1 17 1 3 0 1 35
10 FREELOVE, Josh...... 0-1 0-1 0-1 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 11
20 RODRIGUEZ, Drew..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
21 ROHNER, Kevin....... 2-2 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 3
22 SHUNNAR, Jay........ 0-4 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 3 0 4 0 0 2 25
45 SALTER, Ian......... 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 2 2 2 0 0 1 1 1 12
Team................ 1 1 2
Totals.............. 14-45 8-24 5-11 8 15 23 9 41 12 13 2 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-26 30.8% 2nd Half: 6-19 31.6% Game: 31.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-12 33.3% 2nd Half: 4-12 33.3% Game: 33.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 1-3 33.3% 2nd Half: 4-8 50.0% Game: 45.5% 2
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Officials: Darryl Smith, Ken Turner, Bret Wegenke
Technical fouls: Western Michigan-None. TOLEDO-None.
Attendance: 3398
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Western Michigan.............. 25 36 - 61
TOLEDO........................ 21 20 - 41
Points in the paint-WMU 30,TOLEDO 8. Points off turnovers-WMU 16,TOLEDO 13.
2nd chance points-WMU 6,TOLEDO 9. Fast break points-WMU 8,TOLEDO 0.
Bench points-WMU 23,TOLEDO 5. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-1 time.
Last FG-WMU 2nd-01:29, TOLEDO 2nd-00:15.
Largest lead-WMU by 25 2nd-05:41, TOLEDO by 3 1st-18:00.
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“(Resting Kool is) huge, especially toward the end of the season,” said junior guard Alex Wolf, who tallied four points, five assists and only one turnover. “We know we’re going to need him in crunch time everywhere. It’s no surprise that he brings a lot of attention. Most of our open looks tonight were probably because they were putting two or three men on him and he was sharing the rock really well.”
(On getting a win at Toledo, which WMU has struggled at) "Anytime we can get a win in here is really, really good. Last year was a heartbreaker. We ended up sharing the MAC West last year and we needed a game anywhere and we lost here by one. It's good to get a win in this new arena."
(On pulling away in the second half) "We knew we had to pick up our defense. That's all we've been preaching in practice for the last two or three days. We've been trying to find our defensive identity that we had earlier in the year. We went into halftime, came together and really started trusting each other to play defense and be help-side. It started to pay off."
Comments about anything?
Thomas R. Wolf, Jr. <wmuwolf@gmail.com>