Oakland Pulls Away in Second Half to Send Toledo to First Loss

Wednesday, November 17

Rochester, Mich.

7:00 p.m.

University of Toledo

2-1,0-0MAC

Oakland

2-1,0-0Horizon

Toledo

Oakland

Sophomore Ryan Rollins paced Toledo with 21 points tonight at Oakland.

Photo by: Ethan Wagner

Oakland Pulls Away in Second Half to Send Toledo to First Loss

11/17/2021 10:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Final Stats (PDF)

ROCHESTER, Mich. – Sophomore Ryan Rollins scored a team-high 21 points but that wasn't enough on Wednesday evening in Toledo's 80-59 defeat at Oakland. The Rockets held a 32-31 halftime lead but couldn't overcome a season-high 18 turnovers or slow down a red-hot Golden Grizzlies' attack in the second half.

Toledo finished the contest with a season-low 33.9 field-goal percentage and was just 6-of-22 (27.3%) behind the three-point arc against the Golden Grizzlies' zone defense. Oakland registered a 48.5 shooting mark, including a 56.3 effort in the second half.

"Oakland's zone is very disruptive and it's hard to simulate in practice," Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "For some of our guys that was the first time they've seen a zone like this. I thought we played better than Oakland in the first half but just turned it over too much. We could have maybe been up eight or 10 points but we had 11 turnovers. We'll learn from this and get better from it."

Rollins was joined in double figures by juniors RayJ Dennis (11 pts.) and JT Shumate (10 pts.). Junior Setric Millner Jr. paced the Rockets with 11 rebounds.

Graduate transfer Jamal Cain topped Oakland with 29 points and 17 rebounds in 36 minutes.

The Rockets are back in action next week with three games at the Baha Mar Nassau Championship. Toledo will open play in the tournament against Conference USA foe Charlotte on Monday, Nov. 22 at noon.

HOW IT HAPPENED

FIRST HALF

Toledo started strong and took an early 9-2 lead with Ryan Rollins hitting a three-pointer and driving for a layup in the first two minutes.
The Rockets maintained that lead until Jamal Cain's layup put Oakland in front 17-16 with 9:02 remaining in the half.
Neither team led by more than three minutes the rest of the half. The Rockets did take three-point leads on three occasions in the final five minutes but couldn't extend their advantage any further.
Toledo held a 32-31 lead at halftime despite committing 11 turnovers.

SECOND HALF

The first five minutes featured five lead changes before Oakland broke free from the Rockets with a 12-0 spurt to go in front 56-43 following Cain's three-point play with 11:11 remaining.
Rollins knocked down a three-pointer on the ensuing possession to cut the Rockets' deficit to 10 points.
A 10-2 Oakland run put Toledo down 70-50 with 5:52 left to end any hopes of a comeback bid.