TOLEDO, Ohio – Junior Dante Maddox Jr. scored a team-high 21 points to help the Toledo men's basketball team remain unbeaten in Mid-American Conference play on Tuesday night with a 77-66 victory over Buffalo (2-15, 1-4 MAC) in Savage Arena. The win extended the Rockets' regular-season MAC winning streak to a league-record 20 games and left UT (11-6, 5-0 MAC) in a first-place tie with Akron (13-4, 5-0 MAC).

"We were hurt tonight by Buffalo's length and size, but we made the plays we needed to at winning time," Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "We found a way to win, and our program takes a lot of pride in winning any way possible."

Joining Maddox in double figures were redshirt freshman Javan Simmons (career-high 20 pts., 10-of-13 FG), junior Ra'Heim Moss (18 pts., 9 reb., 7 asst.) and junior Tyler Cochran (11 pts., team-high 10 reb.).

Senior Isaiah Adams paced the Bulls with 24 points. The Rockets limited Buffalo's leading scorer Sy Chatman to 16 points on 7-of-19 shooting.

Toledo shot 46.0% from the field, slightly better than the Bulls' 43.5 shooting mark. Toledo also held a 39-35 rebounding advantage, marking the fourth straight contest it has grabbed more boards than its opponent.

The contest featured eight lead changes with the Rockets finally pulling away with an 8-0 spurt to take a 70-61 lead with three minutes to play.

Toledo returns to action on Friday, Jan. 19 with a trip to Mt. Pleasant, Mich. to face Central Michigan. Tip-off time is set for 7:00 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Toledo has won its first five MAC games for the seventh time in program history. The school record for most wins to open a MAC season is seven held by the 1978-79 and 2006-07 squads.
• UT's 20-game winning streak is four more than the previous record held by Miami.
• The Rockets have won their last six meetings vs. Buffalo.
• Ra'Heim Moss tied his career high with seven assists.
• Dante Maddox Jr. scored in double digits for a career-high 11th straight game and scored his 1,000th career point on a free throw in the second half.
• Tyler Cochran registered his second double-double as a Rocket and the eight in his career.

HOW IT HAPPENED

FIRST HALF

• Neither team led by more than four points until a 7-0 run gave the Rockets a 21-14 lead at the 9:45 mark.
• Toledo took its largest lead of the half, 26-17, on Javan Simmons' layup that led to a Bulls timeout just over eight minutes before halftime.
• The Bulls closed out the half with a 10-2 spurt to even the score at 33-33.
• Dante Maddox Jr. led Toledo offensively with 11 pts, with Simmons adding 10 points.

SECOND HALF

• Simmons buried a jumper to ignite a 10-0 Rocket run that put UT ahead 47-39 with 14:32 to play.
• Buffalo answered by scoring 11 straight points over the next two minutes to take a 48-47 lead at the 12:35 mark.
• Neither team led by more than two points for the next six minutes until a Ra'Heim Moss three-pointer put Toledo in front, 62-56.
• The Bulls responded again by scoring the next five points to reduce their deficit to one.
• Simmons then helped the Rockets put the game away with a putback capping off an 8-0 burst for a 70-61 lead with three minutes left.