TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo women's basketball team shot a staggering 61.5 percent from the floor on Sunday vs. Missouri State en route to a 91-63 victory over the Lady Bears.
Playing at home for the first time in two weeks, Toledo (6-2) led wire-to-wire against Missouri State (2-4) and led by as many as 31. The 61.5 field goal percentage is the Rockets' highest in the
Tricia Cullop era and just the third time they have shot at least 60 percent from the floor since 2008-09.
"I was really proud of our players today," Cullop said. "We played at Missouri State last season and they took it to us, so our players were really looking forward to this game and to have another opportunity to play them. I have a lot of respect for that program. I'm glad we got the win today and it was good to see our bench ready to go and good to see our offense play as well as it did."
Five players scored in double figures in Sunday's win. Senior guards
Quinesha Lockett and
Sophia Wiard scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, and three Rockets each scored 10 points: juniors
Khera Goss,
Soleil Barnes, and
Lonasia Brewer. The 10-point outings for Barnes and Brewer mark season-high totals for both players and both went 4-for-4 from the floor. Senior
Jayda Jansen was close behind with nine points.
Toledo shot at least 50 percent from the floor in all four quarters, peaking with a 75.0 percentage (9-for-12) in the third quarter. UT made 7-for-11 shots from three-point range with six players knocking down at least one triple. Toledo also shot 76.9 percent from the free throw line, making 20-of-26 shots.
The Rockets received contributions from up and down the roster on Sunday. All 11 players that saw the court scored a point and 44 of the 91 points came off the bench.
Missouri State was led by Paige Rocca, who scored a team-high 11 points in a reserve role. Kennedy Taylor and Aniya Thomas both scored 10 points. The Lady Bears made 23-of-68 shots, good for a 33.8 field goal percentage. They shot just 21.1 percent (4-for-19) from beyond the arc.
Toledo faces a stiff test this week as it is scheduled to visit No. 17 Michigan (9-0) on Thursday, Dec. 8. Tip off for that game is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
1st Quarter
- Toledo got on the board first, scoring the first three points of the game on a free throw from Lockett and a basket by Goss.
- Missouri State's Green knocked down a pullup jumper at the 8:35 mark for her team's first bucket of the game to make the score 3-2, but that would be the closest the Lady Bears would get to catching the Rockets.
- UT launched a 12-4 run to quickly build a 10-point lead, 16-6.
- The Rockets ended the first quarter by scoring eight of the final nine points to take a 26-12 lead heading into the second.
2nd Quarter
- Lockett scored the first basket of the second quarter, then junior Nan Garcia tallied back-to-back baskets to increase the Toledo lead to 32-12 before Missouri State got on the board.
- The Lady Bears put together their longest scoring run of the game midway through the second quarter. A 7-0 run in the midst of a nearly three-minute Toledo scoring drought brought the score to 35-21 with 3:59 to go in the half.
- Jansen broke the Rockets' scoreless streak with a three-pointer that kick-started a 7-0 run that erased the progress Missouri State had made at cutting into its deficit.
- The first half ended with Toledo ahead 44-25. Lockett scored 12 of her 16 points in the first two quarters.
3rd Quarter
- Both teams turned in their best offensive quarter in the third period. Toledo made 9-of-12 shots (75.0 percent) and Missouri State made 8-of-17 shots (47.1 percent).
- The Lady Bears opened the quarter on a 6-2 run, but Toledo responded by scoring six straight points to put the ledger at 52-31 at the 7:16 mark of the quarter.
- Playing at their offensive best, both teams traded blows before the quarter ended with UT on top 70-47.
4th Quarter
- Nine different players scored a point in a fourth quarter for Toledo.
- The Rockets scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to take their largest lead of the game, a 77-47 advantage with 8:34 to play.
- Toledo ended the game strong offensively and defensively, outscoring the Lady Bears 9-2 in the final 3:17 of the game and holding its opponents without a field goal in the final 3:42 of game time.