MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – In a battle of the top teams in the Mid-American Conference West Division on Saturday afternoon at McGuirk Arena, the University of Toledo men’s basketball team exerted itself on the defensive end and used a balanced scoring effort for an 80-68 victory over Central Michigan.
With the win, the Rockets clinch at least a share of the MAC West title with two regular season games left. They are guaranteed a top-four finish in the conference and a bye to the MAC tournament quarterfinals in Cleveland.
“I thought our mentality and focus from start to finish was really good,” Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “We had a great start at both ends. Defensively, we were locked in for 40 minutes. Offensively, we had it rolling. We had a couple turnovers in the first half that we would like to have back but, in the second half, it was as efficient offensively as we have played.”
Toledo (23-6, 11-5 MAC) got 19 points each from senior Jaelan Sanford and junior Luke Knapke as well as 18 points from sophomore Marreon Jackson.
Shawn Roundtree, Jr., paced Central Michigan (20-9, 9-7 MAC) with 22 points, Larry Austin, Jr., had 20 points, and Dallas Morgan scored 13.
For the second straight game against Central Michigan, Toledo blocked a school-record 11 shots. With a decided size advantage against a slashing Chippewas team, Knapke swatted five shots, freshman AJ Edu rejected four, and Willie Jackson and Nate Navigato each blocked a shot.
Willie Jackson led Toledo in rebounding with eight boards, Edu had seven, and Knapke had five.
“Our inside players were terrific,” Kowalczyk said. “Willie added so much value. Luke obviously got points. AJ got great rebounds and got a lot of blocked shots. We had 11 blocks again, which tied a school record. Our guys inside made a big difference.”
Toledo led by 16 points in the first half after Sanford hit a jumper to give the Rockets a 30-14 lead with 4:20 left. The Chippewas got closer at the end of the half when Matt Beachler was fouled by Willie Jackson while shooting a 3-pointer. He made all three foul shots with 0.6 seconds left to cut the Rockets halftime lead to 36-24.
Toledo was dominant defensively in the opening half, limiting the Chippewas to 9-of-30 (30 percent) shooting from the field and 1-of-10 (10 percent) shooting from the 3-point line.
“I thought our defensive effort was unbelievable,” Sanford said. “A couple times we didn’t get back and they made a couple 3s on us. They made a good run, be we stayed composed and defended again and got the lead back up.”
The second half started with a frenetic pace and, after the teams traded four straight 3-pointers, two by each team, Toledo had a 48-37 lead after Navigato’s 3-pointer.
Central Michigan went on a quick 10-0 run to cut the lead to 48-47 with 12:51 left.
“We missed three really good looks and that led to transition for them,” Kowalczyk said. “When you miss shots, especially long shots, it leads to long rebounds and transition. They got going in transition, and I called timeout and our guys settled down. They were fine.”
Chris Darrington answered with a 3-pointer that helped to halt the Chippewas’ charge.
Central Michigan again cut the lead to one at 54-53 with 9:39 left. Toledo went on a 9-0 run on five points from Knapke, a layup by Willie Jackson and a Sanford jumper that gave the Rockets a 63-53 edge with 7:04 left.
From there, Toledo didn’t let Central Michigan cut the lead below eight points.
“We stuck together and we got the key stops we needed,” Knapke said. “They really push it in transition, so we did a great job stopping that. We just took great shots and found the open guy.”
With two games remaining, Toledo is two games up on Central Michigan and is guaranteed at least a share the MAC West title. Last year, Toledo won the MAC West outright at 13-5 in the conference.
“We’re MAC West champs back-to-back,” Kowalczyk said. “But we’re not happy with that. We’ve got more to get.”
First Published March 2, 2019, 11:39 p.m.
