The Toledo women’s basketball team clinched its second straight outright Mid-American Conference Championship on Saturday with a thrilling 62-56 comeback victory vs. Bowling Green.
In front of a regular season record 6,086 fans at Savage Arena, Toledo (25-4, 16-2 MAC) overcame a 17-point point deficit against arch-rival Bowling Green (25-5, 14-4 MAC) in the Battle of I-75 presented by Cooper Tires. It was the second-straight double-digit comeback for UToledo and the fourth such comeback victory during the team’s 13-game winning streak.
The Rockets will be the No. 1 seed in next week’s MAC Tournament and will face No. 8 Buffalo at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 8, in the first quarterfinal game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland. For more information or to purchase MAC Tournament tickets, visit utrockets.com/MACTournament.
The Rockets celebrate their second straight outright MAC Title on Saturday.
Toledo led for much of the first quarter on Saturday before BGSU scored nine unanswered points to take a 14-9 lead at the break. The Falcons’ lead grew to nine points at halftime and ballooned to 17 points, 37-20, with 5:49 to go in the third quarter. The Rockets proceeded to score nine straight points to pull within nine, and ended the quarter on a 9-2 run to pull within five, 45-40, heading into the fourth.
Toledo opened the fourth quarter with 10 straight points to turn a five-point deficit into a five-point lead and never looked back. Junior Nan Garcia led the charge with eight points on 4-of-4 shooting in the final quarter and put an exclamation point on Saturday’s victory with an emphatic block in the closing seconds.
“After that first half, my biggest job was making sure our players knew we could still win this game,” head coach Tricia Cullop said. “I thought when we finally started focusing on taking care of the basketball and effectively running our offense, good things started to happen. I thought our press helped as well, we were able to take them out of their offensive rhythm. I thought our composure was outstanding.”
Garcia scored 10 points off the bench on Saturday and was one of three Rockets to score in double figures. Junior Sammi Mikonowicz tallied her fourth double-double of the season, scoring 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds while making 8-of-10 free throws. Mikonowicz nearly had a double-double in the second half alone, scoring 14 points and pulling down eight boards after halftime. Senior Quinesha Lockett scored 13 points, her 28th double-digit scoring effort of the season.
Toledo shot 47.5% from the floor, including a robust 65.0% (13-of-20) in the second half. The Rockets also outrebounded Bowling Green 23-10 in the second half as well.
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Bowling Green was led by Elissa Brett and her game-high 23 points, 21 of which came on three-point field goals. The Falcons shot 29.4% from the field and made just 3-of-16 shots in the fourth quarter.
