University of Toledo
OAKLAND
Toledo Takes Down Oakland, 74-47
12/17/2005 12:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
TOLEDO, OH - Sophomore Kristi Zeller scored a career-high 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting in just 16 minutes to lead Toledo (5-2) to a 74-47 victory over Oakland (3-5) on Saturday night at Savage Hall.
Junior Savannah Werner added 12 points with four rebounds and sophomore Jasmine House chipped in 12 points and five caroms for the Rockets, who outrebounded the Golden Grizzlies by a 39-27 margin.
"Tonight was a total team effort," Werner said. "When we play like this, we're a pretty hard team to beat. Coach Ehlen emphasizes rebounding each and every practice. One of our goals tonight was to come out and outrebound them, and we did that."
Ten of UT's 12 players scored in the contest with Zeller leading the reserves followed by freshman Lacey McNulty with seven, senior Amanda Davis with six and junior Allison Lindborg had four points and a team-best six rebounds.
"We had players coming off the bench tonight and contributing in a big way," Toledo Head Coach Mark Ehlen said. "We also outrebounded our opponent for a fourth-straight game. This was a solid win for us."
Toledo started quickly and scored the game's first seven points, before OU cut the lead to 7-6 on a jumper by Nicole Piggott. The one point deficit would be the closest the Golden Grizzlies would get the remainder of the contest.
The Rockets then took over with consecutive baskets by Lindborg, followed by the first of three triples from Zeller to make the score 22-10 and force OU into its second timeout of the opening half with 9:04 left.
UT increased its lead to as many as 20 points in the opening stanza and led 38-19 at the half. The 39 points is the most first half points tallied by Toledo this season. Their previous best was 33 at St. Francis (PA) back on Nov. 29.
A 14-6 run early in the second half put the game away for the Rockets and gave UT its second largest lead of the game, 53-24, with 12:03 to play. The closest the Golden Grizzlies would come the remainder of the game was 22 points, 61-39, with 5:44 remaining to play.
The Rockets finished 5-of-13 from three-point range, while Oakland was 0-of-11 from beyond the arc.
Piggott led two OU players in double figures with 13 points, while Jayme Wilson had 12. The Golden Grizzlies came into tonight's contest averaging 66.4 points per game.
"Oakland is a very dangerous team and can score on bunches, but tonight we never allowed that to happen," Ehlen said.
With the victory, the Midnight Blue and Gold snap a six-game losing skid the Golden Grizzlies and improve to 1-6 all-time vs. OU. UT's 5-2 record is its best start since the 2002-03 campaign, when it also won five of its initial seven contests. The Rockets finished that year 20-10 and won a share of the MAC regular season championship.
Toledo returns to action on Tuesday, Dec. 20 when it travels to the "Queen City" to battle Cincinnati. Game time is slated for 7:00 p.m. from Fifth Third Arena.
