It didn’t take long for University of Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk to diagnose what went wrong as the Rockets saw their seven-game win streak snapped in a 75-63 loss to Ball State on Tuesday night at Savage Arena.

“It just comes to one thing: We got our tails whipped on the glass tonight,” Kowalczyk said. “It was plain and simple. We didn’t come with a mentality to be aggressive, fight, and rebound. We didn’t shoot the ball well, but we still could have won the game. You give up 21 second chance points and 19 offensive rebounds it’s very tough to win. We lost the mentality of team rebounding. We’re not the biggest and most physical, so we needed help in there and our guards just refused to go in there and battle. It just comes down to plain and simple team rebounding.”

Ball State’s big men Trey Moses and Tahjai Teague controlled the game inside with 14 and 11 rebounds respectively as the Cardinals muscled their way to a 58-41 edge on the boards.

GALLERY: Toledo Mens Basketball Falls to Ball State

Ball State came into the game averaging 36.9 rebounds per game and had 35 rebounds, including 13 offensive rebounds, by halftime.

Toledo struggled to shoot for much of the game, recording its lowest shooting percentage (34.4 percent) in Mid-American Conference play.

“It was definitely one of those nights,” UT senior Tre’Shaun Fletcher said. “Our shots weren’t falling. We weren’t getting defensive rebounds. All that being said we had chances to cut the lead under five with a lot of time, but we just couldn’t get over the hump tonight.”

Fletcher led Toledo (15-7, 7-2 MAC) with 16 points and 10 rebounds, Jaelan Sanford added 14 points, and Luke Knapke had 11.

Teague paced Ball State (14-8, 5-4 MAC) with 21 points, Tayler Persons chipped in with 16 points, and Moses had 15.

Toledo never led in the game and Ball State quickly opened a 17-7 lead after a Teague 3-pointer with 14:10 left in the first half.

Ball State went on to lead by as many as 17 points in the opening half after a Persons jump shot gave the Cardinals a 30-13 edge with 7:10 left before halftime

The Rockets cut the Ball State lead to eight points after a Fletcher 3-pointer with 27 seconds left in the half. But Moses scored on a post move with 2 seconds left and Toledo went into halftime trailing 37-27.

“We were down 17-7 and Taylor Adway misses a layup to start with and Navigato doesn’t block out to start with,” Kowalczyk said. “I sensed [the lack of energy] right way. We needed someone to go out there and be aggressive and make that happen and we just didn’t have that tonight. We just didn’t compete tonight.”

Toledo cut the Ball State lead to six points on several different occasions in the second half, but Ball State quickly responded each time. The Rockets had one last run to make it 65-59 after a Knapke layup with 3:28 left.

On the next Ball State possession, Ishmael El-Amin made a running jumper and following a missed three by Sanford, Teague made a layup to stretch the advantage back to double digits.

“It’s very frustrating,” Fletcher said of the loss. “We have build from this and learn from this and be sure it doesn’t happen again. With league play being so tough, we need all the home games we can get. We have to have a short memory with this and we can’t let one game turn into two. We have to go up to Akron and be ready.”

Toledo lost at Buffalo to open MAC play and then reeled off seven straight conference wins before the home loss to Ball State. The Rockets will head on the road to take on Akron on Saturday.

Fletcher said Toledo will try to move on quickly from the loss starting with the next practice and draw from the experience gained during the extensive win streak.

“We know what it takes to get there,” Fletcher said. “We know what it takes to win consistently. We just have to get back to that and it starts on the defensive end with the rebounding. We have to get back to the drawing board. We are going to learn from this for sure.”

WILLIE JACKSON SITS OUT: Toledo sophomore Willie Jackson was not available to play in the Ball State game because of a shoulder injury. Kowalczyk says he is day-to-day and Toledo hopes to get him back for the Akron game.

Contact Brian Buckey at bbuckey@theblade.com, 419-724-6110, or on Twitter @BrianBuckey.

First Published January 31, 2018, 1:56 a.m.