A great night for women’s basketball.

A greater night for Toledo.

Wow.

In front of a national television audience and a rafter-rattling crowd of 7,082 at Savage Arena on Wednesday, the Rockets did not just beat mighty Michigan … again.

A year after stunning the then-14th-ranked Wolverines in Ann Arbor, they ran their Big Ten neighbors to the north clear out of the gym in a 69-46 win that was as authoritative as it was electrifying.

“I can’t compliment my team enough,” coach Tricia Cullop said. “The effort we had on both ends was what you had to have to beat a really good team. And the fans, my goodness, what an amazing feeling. I haven’t felt that kind of electricity in this building since we won the WNIT [in 2011]. It was awesome to feel it again.”

The largest regular-season home gathering in UT women’s basketball history came for a party and stayed for a coronation.

Simply, it was the Rockets’ night, right from the start, when we learned the bank had extended its hours past 5 p.m. — the tip time — as star guard Quinesha Lockett put Toledo on the board with the first of the home team’s three 3s off the backboard.

“The bank was open today,” she said with a big smile after scoring a game-high 20 points, “and we were making some cash money.”

But don’t get the wrong idea.

This was no fluke. After an uneven first month, this was the Toledo we expected when it brought back all five starters from the indomitable team that last season carved through the Mid-American Conference and beat Iowa State in the NCAA tournament.

This was a wire-to-wire clinic of teamwork (15 assists), lights-out shooting (UT shot 52 percent before missing its final six attempts), and in-your-face defense. The Rockets (4-2) forced 19 turnovers and held Michigan (7-2) to 34 percent shooting. 

All night, they did it all, sending wave after wave of cheers crashing down from the packed upper reaches of the arena. Toledo trailed for 19 seconds and led by double digits for more than 27 minutes.

“You could feel the floor shaking,” guard Sophia Wiard said.

And you could hear nothing.

At least until the end, when the student section — recalling the Rockets’ victory at Michigan in 2008 the last time the schools met on the gridiron — began to chant, “Just like football! Just like football!” (Given her chops beating Michigan, no word if Ohio State plans to hire Cullop as its football coach.)

What a scene.

What a night for women’s basketball.

“Toledo was awesome,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said.

You’re not so bad yourself, either, coach.

We’d be remiss here to not credit Barnes Arico for helping make the night possible.

She didn’t have to come to Toledo. You could spend your life wrapped in Kevlar in a bomb shelter, and you’d be less risk-averse than the average coach at a big-time program. Most would sooner schedule a game at 3 a.m. on the moon than play a top mid-major team in one of the nation’s best environments. They see these games as a lose-lose scenario.

But some coaches get it.

Former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw — who twice took her powerhouse Irish teams to Savage Arena — is one of them. So is Duke’s Kara Lawson, along with Barnes Arico, who agreed to a home-and-home with Toledo to prepare her team for the biggest challenges in the Big Ten.

Cullop could not be more appreciative.

“Those are few ‘yes’ [answers] for about a hundred thousand ‘nos,”’ Culllop said. “It's so good not only for us, but it's … also great for basketball. Women's basketball needs more … THIS! Great environments. Great matchups.”

Hear, hear.

From the second I walked into Savage Arena late Wednesday afternoon, the old building already abuzz, I would have said the night couldn’t have gotten much better.

Except that wasn’t true at all. For Toledo, the victors valiant, it got a lot better.

Factor in the stage and the performance delivered on it, and it was nothing less than one of the great nights in Toledo women’s basketball history.

Cullop afterward grabbed the mic from the courtside scorer’s table and thanked the fans.

“We couldn’t have done it without all of you,” she said. “I hope we see you a lot this season. Please come back this year.”

I suspect that won’t be a problem.

First Published December 7, 2023, 3:34 a.m.