Rockets' Senior Night Spoiled by Eastern Michigan, 71-69

Friday, March 2

Toledo, Ohio

6:00 p.m.

University of Toledo

21-10 (13-5MAC)

Eastern Michigan

20-11 (11-7MAC)

Eastern Michigan

TOLEDO

Junior Nate Navigato scored a career-high 28 points vs. Eastern Michigan.

Photo by: Toledo Athletics

Rockets' Senior Night Spoiled by Eastern Michigan, 71-69

3/2/2018 11:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Final Stats (PDF)

TOLEDO, Ohio – Junior forward Nate Navigato's career-high 28 points weren't quite enough on Friday evening as Toledo dropped a 71-69 back-and-forth affair to Eastern Michigan on Senior Night in Savage Arena. Navigato knocked down eight three-point field goals in the contest, the most ever in a Mid-American Conference game by a Rocket.

UT (21-10 overall, 13-5 MAC) will be the No. 2 seed in next week's MAC Tournament and face the No. 7 seed on Thursday, March 8 at 6:30 p.m. in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena. The Eagles (20-11, 11-7) are the No. 3 seed in the tourney and will match up with the No. 6 seed 30 minutes following the Rockets' contest.

Sophomore center Luke Knapke was the only other Rocket to score in double digits, finishing with 11 points and seven rebounds. UT's two leading scorers, senior guard Tre'Shaun Fletcher and junior guard Jaelan Sanford, were limited to nine and five points, respectively.

Junior forward Elijah Minnie paced EMU offensively with 25 points with junior guard Paul Jackson tallying 16 points and junior center James Thompson IV contributing 13 points.

Toledo held a 33-25 advantage in the rebounding department with sophomore forward Willie Jackson leading the way with eight boards to go along with nine points.

Both squads posted similar shooting numbers with EMU's 51.0 field-goal mark slightly better than UT's 45.3 clip. The Eagles outperformed the Rockets at the charity stripe as well, knocking down 17-of-20 attempts (85.0 percent) compared to UT's 11-of-17 totals (64.7 percent).

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Navigato opened the game with a three-pointer, but EMU rattled off nine straight points by limiting the Rockets to 1-of-5 shooting and forcing five turnovers.
EMU took its largest lead of the night at 12 points, 21-9, following a 10-2 spurt that was keyed by a pair of Minnie threes.
Navigato evened the contest at 31-apiece on his sixth trey with 1:18 remaining in the opening stanza.
Navigato and freshman guard Marreon Jackson buried three-point field goals to key an 8-0 run and give Toledo a seven-point cushion, 52-45, with 8:59 to play.
EMU responded with a quick seven points over 1:23 to even the game at 52-52 90 seconds later.
Neither team led by more than two points until a 7-0 burst by the Rockets put UT ahead, 63-58, with 3:26 left.
EMU rallied to take a 67-65 advantage with 36.6 seconds remaining but Knapke responded with a three-point play to put Toledo up two 20 seconds later.
Jackson answered with a three-point play of his own to put EMU ahead to stay, 70-69, with 8.8 seconds to play.
Navigato's game-winning three-point attempt rimmed out and the Eagles with 0.7 seconds left.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

Navigato tied the Rockets' season three-point field goal record with 89 treys held by former Rocket Nick Moore (2002-03). Navigato also tied a Savage Arena record with his eight treys and finished one three-pointer shy of Kent Murphree's school record of nine vs. Chaminade on Nov. 24, 1991.
The last time a Rocket made seven treys in a contest was Julius Brown vs. Robert Morris on Dec. 17, 2014.
Sanford's five points matched his season low of five at Ball State (Feb. 17).
Fletcher was held out of double digits for just the third time this season. He was still able to contribute six rebounds and five assists for the Rockets.
Knapke finished 4-of-5 from the field and is 19-of-28 from the field in his last four contests.

Highlights from UT's matchup against Eastern Michigan.