CLEVELAND — The University of Toledo’s not-so-secret weapon was on display Wednesday at Rocket Arena: the third quarter.
Few teams in the country can deliver a third-quarter performance like the Rockets, and they desperately needed it against Central Michigan to extend their season.
Trailing by five at the half and 10 in the third quarter, No. 2 seed Toledo — powered by a 14-0 run — surged ahead of the seventh-seeded Chippewas en route to a 76-58 win in the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament.
“That’s the intensity we have to have all game,” Toledo senior Nan Garcia said.
The Rockets outscored Central 25-12 in the third, as Garcia, Sammi Mikonowicz, and Faith Fedd-Robinson took over on offense and UT forced seven turnovers. Garcia had nine points, Mikonowicz scored eight, and Fedd-Robinson finished the quarter with six.
During a 14-0 third-quarter run, Toledo took its first lead since 13-11 in the first quarter. Mikonowicz and Fedd-Robinson had an 11-0 run of their own.
“It was a nice little shift in momentum, just knocking down those open shots and just taking those open shots,” Mikonowicz said. “Coach [Ginny Boggess] has been getting on me to shoot the ball, so I just had to finally shoot it.”
The Chippewas were 5 of 19 in the third quarter and shot 25.7 percent in the second half.
After starting 12 of 40 from the field, Toledo made 8 of 10 during its third-quarter onslaught and 14 of 22 the rest of the game. The Rockets had eight 3s in the second half and 13 on the day for a season-best 56.5 percent.
Mikonowicz finished with a game-high 18 points, six rebounds, and three steals, Garcia had 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting from 3 with six rebounds, and Khera Goss’ nine points all came from beyond the arc.
Toledo scored 24 bench points.
“It’s important that we understand that it’s going to be hard,” Boggess said about the MAC tournament. “I’ve been in four conference tournament championships in 23 years. That’s how hard it is, and I’ve been a part of some really good programs and great teams. Setting the tone, getting the jitters out a little bit, and making sure that we stay confident and connected was really huge today.”
For the sixth consecutive season, the Rockets advance to the MAC tournament semifinals, where they will face No. 3 seed Buffalo at 12:30 p.m. Friday. UT swept the Bulls during the regular season.
On Tuesday, Garcia was named the MAC’s sixth player of the year. On Wednesday, she started her first game of the season, a decision by Boggess and her staff made because Central post Ayanna-Sarai Darrington went off for 23 points and 13 rebounds two weeks ago at UT.
Darrington was limited to just nine points and three rebounds Wednesday.
“I want to give [Jessica Cook] a shout-out for her maturity and knowing that this was the right move for the team today,” Boggess said. “We knew that Darrington was going to be a handful on the boards, and I thought we did a great job by committee of limiting her to three. Having Nan out there getting Darrington playing defensively on the perimeter and being a threat to open up the paint for our drivers was really instrumental.”
Central’s Madi Morsen had 12 points on 3-of-16 shooting after scoring 21 and 19 in two regular-season games against the Rockets.
The Chippewas turned the ball over 20 times.
“Disappointing loss for how we started,” Central coach Kristin Haynie said. “The first two-and-a-half quarters we played Chippewa basketball, and then we let the game get away from us. Credit Toledo for changing up their defense up and getting our offense stagnant. We weren’t able to let our offense dictate our defense.”
Toledo led 11-6 early, but it was all Central the rest of the half. In building a 36-31 halftime lead, the Chippewas started 11 of 17 and shot 54 percent in the half and made all eight of their free throw attempts.
The only thing that saved the Rockets in the first half was forcing 12 turnovers and going 5 of 11 from beyond the arc.
“It allowed us to stay alive,” Boggess said. “We encouraged our really good 3-point shooters to shoot open shots.”
As the Monmouth coach last year, Boggess was in the same situation as Wednesday – coaching a No. 2 seed against a No. 7 seed after a regular-season sweep. Monmouth was upset by Drexel, an excruciating loss for Boggess but also an invaluable learning experience about the fragility of March.
“Everybody’s urgent this time of year. Everybody’s hungry this time of year,” Boggess said. “We knew that we needed to be prepared. We knew they were going to be prepared. We needed to be ready to counter and execute. But our leadership really helped us that second half, the refuse-to-lose mindset.
Said Garcia: “I’m not ready to be done playing in a Toledo uniform.”
First Published March 12, 2025, 10:13 p.m.
