They came from all across northwest Ohio, eager with anticipation for a history-making Friday night at Savage Arena.
In front of a rollicking crowd of 6,712, Toledo thrashed archrival Bowling Green 96-56 to secure its second consecutive outright Mid-American Conference championship, a feat UT had never accomplished in 107 seasons.
“I got in trouble as a child from my mother because I didn’t like to share my toys, and I’m still that way,” Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “We don’t like to share anything.”
The show unfolded like a masterpiece for the Rockets, who went through their greatest hits for 40 minutes in the largest margin of victory in Battle of I-75 history.
There was Ryan Rollins stealing the basketball and looking effortless on offense. Behind the next door was J.T. Shumate draining 3s. Around the corner was Setric Millner, Jr., unleashing a ferocious dunk. Ra’Heim Moss had the most complete game of his career. And the ringmaster was point guard RayJ Dennis.
“He’s playing at a high level,” Kowalczyk said. “He defends. He’s a great teammate. He says the right things when we need it. He’s a great leader for our program.”
Toledo’s offensive outburst combined with BGSU's ineptitude gave the game a feel of the Harlem Globetrotters versus the Washington Generals.
The Rockets shot nearly 60 percent and made a season-high 12 3-point attempts. The only reason UT didn’t score 100 was because it went scoreless the final 2:39, missing the last five field goals.
Only 20 teams in the country have a worse defense than the Falcons, and it showed on Friday.
“We weren’t able to score enough points to keep pace with them,” BG coach Michael Huger said. “We took some ill-advised shots that led to their transition on the other end. Once it got to about 19, they just pulled away.”
UT’s starting five all finished in double digits — the group was 33-of-48 shooting — led by Shumate’s game-high 22 points on 8-of-9 shooting. Millner scored 19 points, Rollins had 18, Moss added 15 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists, and Dennis finished with 12 points and nine assists.
The Rockets scored 1.477 points per possession, assisted on a season-high 25 of 37 field goals, and no player had more than one turnover.
“I feel like we’re peaking,” Dennis said. “We went through a little slump and had to overcome some adversity. We’re playing our brand of ball. I’m confident going into Cleveland.
Toledo clinched the No. 1 seed in the MAC tournament and will play eighth-seeded Central Michigan at 11 a.m. Thursday at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
BGSU did not advance to the MAC tournament.
“It’s definitely disappointing,” Huger said. “Not only for myself but for my team. The guys worked hard. We knew what was at stake.”
In his final game, Daeqwon Plowden scored a team-high 19 points for the Falcons, which shot just 35.4 percent.
The opening minutes were tight, with the teams tied at 12 at the 12-minute mark of the first half. Then UT unleashed a torrent of offense, using a 33-11 run to blow the game wide open. Toledo led 47-28 at halftime.
“I thought everybody played really hard,” Shumate said. “That’s all you can ask for as a fan, a team that comes in here and gives it their all and leaves their heart on the floor. And I felt that I did that and we did that.”
A dozen years ago, Toledo was coming off a listless four-win season, the team’s second-worst win percentage ever, and a horrendous two-year stretch. Athletic director Mike O’Brien pulled the plug on the Gene Cross experiment and conducted a national search for someone who could bring respectability back to a proud program.
O’Brien settled on a little-known coach from the Horizon League with a name Toledo fans couldn’t spell or pronounce. Twelve years later, Kowalczyk is UT’s second-winningest coach, guiding the Rockets to three MAC titles and something that hadn’t been done in 107 years.
“Our program was in disarray, there’s no doubt about it,” O’Brien said. “With Tod, I knew what type of program he ran at Green Bay. He graduated all of his players. He got the right type of players that we wanted in our program. Needless to say, it’s worked out. Congratulations to Tod because he’s really developed a big-time program.”
All that’s left to do is win the MAC tournament.
“We’re looking to make some more history,” Shumate said. “We have some work to do.”
First Published March 5, 2022, 3:07 a.m.
