Against Eastern Michigan’s trademark 2-3 zone, the University of Toledo men’s basketball team made 13 3-pointers on the way to a 64-58 win over the Eagles in the Rockets’ regular season finale Friday night at Savage Arena.
With the win, Toledo sent its three seniors – Jaelan Sanford, Nate Navigato, and Chris Darrington – out in style in their final home game, and clinched the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Mid-American Conference tournament.
Sanford and Spencer Littleson had 14 points each to lead the Rockets (25-6, 13-5 MAC), while Marreon Jackson had 13 points, and Navigato scored 10.
Paul Jackson had 17 points for Eastern Michigan (15-16, 9-9 MAC), and Elijah Minnie scored 15.
The shooting numbers were good for Toledo (46 percent from 3) but, judging by the first 10 minutes, it looked like a long night would be in store against the Eagles’ zone.
Before Littleson stole a pass and converted a reverse layup for the first Toledo points of the game more than five minutes in, the Rockets had already missed six shots and turned the ball over four times.
Darrington came off the bench and hit a 3-pointer with 9:18 left in the opening half for Toledo’s first 3 of the game after missing its first seven attempts, and Eastern Michigan led 8-5.
With Toledo misfiring on most of its early shots, the Rockets stayed in the game with their defense until they hit a stretch where their shooting fortunes changed.
“Our defense has been really good this year,” Littleson said. “That’s a big focus for us. We knew we had to lean on that when our offense wasn’t going well early. That really kept us going.”
After the dreadful shooting start, Toledo made seven of its next eight from behind the arc, including two from Littleson and Marreon Jackson and one each from Sanford, Navigato, and Darrington.
That sharpshooting and the intensity on defense gave the Rockets a 31-20 advantage at halftime.
“We did miss some shots during that stretch that we made later,” Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “Spencer came in and got us going a little bit. I don’t think you realize how good that zone is until you go scoreless against it during stretches like we did. They are just so big and so long. We did a better job of moving the ball later on and getting the ball to the high post. Once we did that, good things happened.”
Toledo led by 12 points in the second half when Navigato hit a jumper with 14:43 left that gave the Rockets a 42-30 lead.
Eastern Michigan worked it all the way back to a one-point deficit when Kevin McAdoo buried a 3-pointer to make the score 51-50 with 5:20 left.
But Littleson responded with his fourth 3 of the night and Sanford made a jumper to bump the lead back to six points with 3:11 left, and that was as close as Eastern Michigan would get.
“My guys all have my back, and that’s big,” Littleson said. “I’ve been working on [my shot] and I just have to trust the work I’ve put in. I’m a really hard worker, so I’m just trusting my game and shooting my shot.”
Littleson was happy he helped ensure a victory in the final home game for Toledo’s three seniors.
“I kept on saying the whole time in the game, ‘We have to do this for the seniors,’ Littleson said. “I kept making it about them. I was going to do anything I could to win that game for them.”
As the No. 2 seed, Toledo will have a bye to the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament in Cleveland and will face the winner of No. 7 seed Northern Illinois and No. 10 Ohio on Thursday night.
“I think the players are excited about going to Cleveland to play on Thursday against a good Northern Illinois or Ohio team,” Kowalczyk said. “When you play in these tournaments, you have to take one at a time and not worry about who the potential next one is.”
The Rockets finished the regular season riding a 5-game winning streak after back-to-back losses at home to Buffalo and at Eastern Michigan.
“We’ve hit a couple of obstacles along the road, but I think we’ve all worked through them,” Littleson said. “I think we’ve done a really good job of that this year. I think we are definitely hitting our stride at the right time.”
First Published March 9, 2019, 2:04 a.m.
