MILWAUKEE — A familiar sound broke out in the Al McGuire Center on Thursday.

“T-O-L!”

“E-D-O!”

In a booming road venue, Toledo played its best when it mattered most, pulling out a 92-82 victory at Marquette to advance to the WNIT Elite Eight. The Rockets outscored Marquette 22-8 in the fourth quarter and held the Golden Eagles to 4-of-19 shooting in the final 10 minutes.

The waning seconds in Section 102 behind the Toledo bench, filled almost entirely with UT supporters, looked like a New Year’s Eve Party.

“It took a valiant effort,” Toledo coach Tricia Cullop said. “This game was like a boxing match. One run, then another run by the other team. You could tell how badly both teams wanted to win.”

The Rockets will host Middle Tennessee State at 7 p.m. Monday at Savage Arena.

Toledo’s 29 wins are tied for the program record.

Quinesha Lockett saved her best for last, scoring 21 of UT’s 22 fourth-quarter points, part of a career-high 37 points in a virtuoso performance.

“I’m so hyped,” Lockett said. “It was all a big rush. It was so loud out there that I could barely hear Sophia [Wiard] call the plays and we were right next to each other. I had to look at her and go off of what everyone else was doing.”

The final score probably wouldn’t have been believable at the end of the third quarter.

A 64-56 Toledo lead became 64-62 in 64 seconds, bringing the arena back to life and drawing a timeout from Cullop. Marquette tied the game on its next possession. The Golden Eagles took their first lead since late in the first quarter after an offensive foul on UT’s ensuing possession.

It turned into a 14-2 run and a 70-66 Marquette lead, its largest of the game. Toledo went through a 1-of-6 shooting stretch.

In the huddle prior to the start of the fourth quarter, Cullop delivered a confidence-boosting message to her players that they had been the better team all night and that there was no reason for it to change.

“This team has been there before,” Cullop said. “We’ve been in worse situations. It never felt like it was out of reach.”

Toledo retook the lead 77-76 on two Lockett free throws with 6:24 left, coinciding with a scoreless streak of more than four minutes for Marquette. Lockett, alone, put Toledo in front 84-78 with 3:32 remaining.

The Golden Eagles never got closer than 84-82.

“I thought [Toledo] was absolutely tremendous tonight,” Marquette coach Megan Duffy said. “Lockett and Wiard were incredible on the offensive end.”

Toledo played the final minute without Wiard, whose lip was inadvertently split open and tooth chipped on a rebound. She scored 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting with seven rebounds, six assists, and a single turnover in 39 minutes.

“Sophia Wiard had an exceptional night,” Cullop said. “Her steadiness and her leadership was a big reason why we had a chance to win tonight.”

Toledo shot 57.1 percent.

Aside from some dicey free throw shooting by the Rockets and Marquette’s foibles, the game was a 40-minute masterclass, an intense, spirited affair that featured highlight after highlight. The environment mimicked an NCAA tournament game.

“It felt like March,” said Marquette’s Chloe Marotta, who scored a career-high 28 points.

The teams combined to shoot 50 percent from the field with 42 assists on 66 field goals.

First-team All-Big East forward Lauren Van Kleunen, an Ohio native, was limited to nine points on 4-of-12 shooting.

The Golden Eagles outrebounded Toledo 34-31, but it was well below their 9.1 rebounding margin, which ranked 12th nationally.

“We absolutely had to box out. We knew we had to do that to survive, and we did it,” Cullop said.

Duffy came to Marquette after two seasons at Miami (Ohio), where she was 4-0 against the Rockets.

After shooting better than 55 percent in the first quarter, Toledo upped its game in the second quarter, going 10 of 16 from the field. At one point, the Rockets were 7 of 10 from 3-point range (for the game). They finished 11 of 20.

The largest lead of the game came in the second quarter, as Toledo stretched out its advantage to 45-35. Marquette responded with a 10-2 run and trailed 49-46 at halftime.

In the first half, Wiard had 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting and didn’t commit a turnover while playing all 20 minutes.

Five players -- two Rockets and three on Marquette -- scored in double figures in the first half.

Keeping Marquette within striking distance, along with its accurate shooting, was offensive rebounds -- nine for nine second-chance points. They had 14 offensive rebounds after three quarters and 14 at the end of the game.

“We hustled and talked a little more on defense,” Cullop said. “We secured the rebounds better than we did in the other quarters.”

The Rockets sprinted out of the gate, forcing three turnovers in the first four minutes and taking a 19-10 at the four-minute mark of the first quarter. UT started 7 of 10 from the field and made four of its first five 3-point attempts.

Feeding off the home crowd, Marquette responded with a 12-3 run to tie the game at 22. Toledo had a stretch of three consecutive missed shots and two turnovers, and the Golden Eagles took advantage.

A critical sequence took place in a matter of seconds, though, as Wiard made a 3 to end the first quarter and Khera Goss added a 3 to begin the second quarter, turning a 22-22 tie into a 28-22 UT lead.

Toledo was full of energy and played aggressively at both ends of the court, perhaps with too much vigor, as the Rockets were whistled for eight first-quarter fouls. Nine players appeared in the opening 10 minutes.

There was one who took over the final 10 minutes.

“Quinesha Lockett, I can’t even begin to say how special of a player she is,” Cullop said. “To be able to go on a scoring run like that, on the road, in a hostile environment, says a lot about her.”

First Published March 25, 2022, 3:00 a.m.