MUNCIE, Ind. — At a critical part of the season when all conference games are magnified, the University of Toledo men’s basketball team made the necessary plays to come away with an 80-72 road win Tuesday against Ball State at Worthen Arena.
“I thought we just made plays,” said Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk, who picked up his 300th career win. “They shot a high percentage, but a lot of that was in the post where we got in foul trouble. I thought our defense overall was really solid. Offensively, we got back to moving the ball and doing what we do best.”
The win for the Rockets avenged a 79-64 loss to the Cardinals at Savage Arena to open Mid-American Conference play Jan. 4. The win also snapped a five-game winning streak for Ball State in the series.
“It feels really good, especially at the end of conference play,” said UT sophomore guard Marreon Jackson, who had a team-high 19 points. “We’re going to get the best from every team being No. 1 in the West [Division]. With Central Michigan coming up and playing against a good Ball State team, who we lost to previously this season, it was a good road win.”
VIDEO: Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk
Senior Jaelan Sanford added 18 points for Toledo (22-6, 10-5 MAC).
Tayler Persons paced Ball State (14-14, 5-10 MAC) with 20 points, Tahjai Teague added 11 points, and Ishmael El-Amin scored 10.
Toledo has seen late leads slip away on a few occasions on the road — specifically in losses at Kent State and at Eastern Michigan.
The Rockets took a 74-61 lead with three minutes remaining in the game after a Sanford jumper. Ball State scored the next seven points to cut the lead to 74-68 with 1:17 left.
After a few miscues by Toledo, including a turnover against Ball State's full-court press, an offensive foul called on Marreon Jackson when he kicked his leg out while shooting a 3, and a Sanford foul after he missed a jumper, Ball State was able to get back into the game.
A key moment came with Toledo leading 76-70 with 1:06 left after Chris Darrington made 1-of-2 free throws. Ball State came down and Kyle Mallers made a 3 but was called on a late whistle for setting a moving screen to get open.
Toledo then got two free throws each from Darrington and Marreon Jackson to close out the game.
“Our coaches have really emphasized us closing out games,” Marreon Jackson said. “In earlier games, we would have a lead and we would give it away. Today we didn’t.”
Offensively, Toledo played with more rhythm than they showed in an ugly home win Saturday against Northern Illinois.
“We moved the ball better,” Kowalczyk said. “We shared it better and our execution was much better. We had 19 assists on 28 made field goals and that’s a pretty good number.”
The Rockets out-rebounded Ball State 34-23, limiting the damage of Cardinals’ post players Trey Moses and Tahjai Teague on the glass.
“They are such a physical team, but we’ve been the best defensive rebounding team in our league if you look at the numbers," Kowalczyk said. “We have a lot of guys who can go in there and get rebounds. I thought our guard rebounds were big tonight. Willie [Jackson] got four offensive rebounds tonight and that was huge.”
Toledo led by as many as 13 points in the first half after Nate Navigato hit a 3 with 5:46 left to give the Rockets a 36-23 lead.
Ball State answered with six consecutive points on 3s by Zach Gunn and Persons to trim the lead to 36-29. After a layup from Teague, the Cardinals trailed 37-33.
Toledo extended the lead to 41-33 after a layup by Marreon Jackson and jumper from Sanford with 18 seconds left before halftime.
Gunn then made another 3 on the final possession of the half to cut the Rockets halftime lead to 41-36.
Ball State committed 21 turnovers in the game, leading to 26 points for Toledo.
Both teams shot well from the field, with Toledo going 28-of-57 (49.1 percent) and Ball State shooting 25-of-48 (52.1 percent).
Toledo leads the West Division by a game over Central Michigan and has a road contest Saturday against the Chippewas.
“You have to win games on the road if you want to compete for a championship,” Kowalczyk said. “I thought we gave one away at Eastern and now we have to go up to Central Michigan and win another one.”
First Published February 27, 2019, 2:15 a.m.
