BOWLING GREEN, OH – Junior Janice Monakana scored a career-high 28 points to lead Toledo to a 68-60 victory over arch-rival Bowling Green on Wednesday before 2,644 fans in the Stroh Center. With the win, the Rockets improve to 14-10 overall, 9-4 in the Mid-American Conference.

Monakana shot an efficient 9-of-13 from the field, including a collegiate-tying best 4-of-5 from three-point land, and 6-of-8 from the charity stripe to propel UT to its sixth win in the last seven meetings against the Falcons (8-14, 4-9 MAC).

The Rockets also received 19 points from sophomore Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott, as well as nine points, a game-high five assists and a contest-best three rejections from senior Brenae Harris to successfully rebound from Saturday's setback against Ohio.

The aforementioned trio of Monakana, Bravo-Harriott and Harris accounted for 55 of UT's 68 points, but the most important tallies of the evening may have come from freshman Halee Printz. The Tipp City, OH native scored five-straight points in a tied game midway through the fourth quarter to give the Midnight Blue & Gold a lead it would not surrender.

With the score knotted 51-51 at the 6:15 mark in the final period, Printz converted back-to-back field goals and split a pair of free throws to help the Rockets win their fourth-straight road game against BGSU for the first time in program history.  

Minutes later, Bowling Green cut the margin to three points, 56-53, on a jumper by Carly Santoro with 3:34 left in regulation.

Toledo responded favorably by scoring five of the next six points to make it a three-possession contest, 61-54, with only 70 seconds showing on the clock. The visitors did all the damage at the charity stripe during this critical stretch, as Monakana and Bravo-Harriott each knocked down two free throws. Harris also split a pair at the line to essentially put the game out of reach.

BGSU's Lauren Tibbs kept the home team's faint hopes alive in the waning seconds with her third triple, but UT countered by hitting seven of its final eight charity tosses to set the final score at 68-60.      

Tibbs paced Bowling Green with a season-high 22 points, a game-high nine caroms and three blocked shots, while Sydney Lambert had 17 points, all in the second half.

The Rockets rode the hot hand of Monakana at the outset, jumping out to a 16-8 lead at the 1:27 mark. The London, England native accounted for four field goals and nine points through the opening eight-plus minutes.

Monakana remained red hot shooting the ball in the second quarter, tallying nine more points to give the visitors a 35-16 advantage at the intermission. The third-year Rocket drilled two treys, added another field goal and one free throw to make it a 19-point difference at the intermission.

Monakana shot a near perfect 7-of-8 from the field in the opening half, including a flawless 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.

To help matters for the Midnight Blue & Gold, the Falcons were limited to a season-low six points in the period.

Bravo-Harriott fed off of Monakana's hot shooting to start the third period, draining a pair of three-point field in a span of less than 40 seconds to make the score 43-26 at the 5:29 mark.

BGSU's Lambert then started to heat up and scored nine of her team's next 13 points to trim the deficit to 43-34 with 2:38 left in the quarter. The sharpshooter buried a pair of three-point field goals, a two-point basket and split a pair of charity tosses to make it a three-possession affair.

The Falcons continue to chip away at the margin and ended the period with a 12-5 run to set the tally at 48-43 after 30 minutes of competition. Five different BGSU players were credited with points over this stretch to ignite the home crowd.

Monakana momentarily silenced the building with her career-tying best fourth three-point field goal in the opening moments of the fourth stanza, but the Falcons responded by rattling off the next eight points to knot the score at 51-51. Tibbs started the run with a triple and Lambert followed with back-to-back field goals to draw the teams even, setting the stage for Printz's five-straight points to give the Rockets a lead they would not give up.

UT outscored BGSU 17-9 over the final six-plus minutes of regulation to record its fourth-straight win in Wood County.

As a team, Toledo shot a respectable 43.5 percent (20-of-46) from the field, including an impressive 53.8 percent (7-of-13) from three-point land, and 65.6 percent (21-of-32) from the free throw line. The Midnight Blue & Gold also posted a 37-34 edge on the boards, paced by eight each from senior Ana Capotosto and Monakana.

The Rockets will be back on the hardwood on Saturday, Feb. 20 when they travel to MAC West Division frontrunner Central Michigan (17-7, 11-2 MAC). The opening tip versus the Chippewas is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. in McGuirk Arena and can be seen on ESPN3.

UT and CMU will meet for the first of two match-ups this season and 86th time overall.     

The Rockets hold a 45-30 (.600) advantage in the all-time series, including a slim 18-16 (.529) edge in contests played in McGuirk Arena. 

A season ago, Toledo swept the regular-season series, claiming a 61-46 road victory (Feb. 11) and a 62-53 home triumph (Feb. 28).