Toledo’s men’s basketball team suffered its first loss of the season with an 84-74 setback at Wright State on Wednesday night.
The Rockets trailed by double digits for much of the second half and were unable to mount a comeback bid against the reigning Horizon League champion Raiders.
Junior center Luke Knapke paced Toledo (2-1) with 20 points, Nate Navigato scored 15 points, Jaelan Sanford added 14, and Chris Darrington had 11 off the bench.
Wright State junior point guard Cole Gentry poured in 30 points to lead Wright State (2-1), Bill Wampler added 17 points, Louden Love had 14, and Skyelar Potter 13.
“We got some really good looks in the second half - some wide open looks,” UT coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “Had we just made one run, we could have been right there. At Oakland, we made those wide open looks and tonight we didn’t. If we make some of those shots I think we would have had a different energy instead of feeling sorry for ourselves.”
Toledo trailed 69-56 with 4:33 left in the game when Knapke buried his sixth 3-pointer of the game and Wright State was called for a foul on a screen by Navigato. Navigato stepped to the line and made two free throws to complete the 5-point play that cut the lead to 69-61.
But on the next possession, Gentry hit a deep 3-pointer that stretched the lead right back to 11 points and Toledo never recovered.
Knapke was 6-of-6 from the 3-point line in the game and made five 3-pointers in the first half on his way to 16 first-half points, but Toledo still went into the locker room trailing 40-32.
“Luke was the one guy that I thought brought some toughness and was ready to play and was talking and trying to get guys going tonight,” Kowalczyk said. “We had some other guys that were awfully quiet tonight.”
Gentry had 13 first-half points for the Raiders and Love added 10.
First Published November 15, 2018, 2:33 a.m.
