TOLEDO, Ohio – In the battle for first place in the Mid-American Conference, the Toledo women's basketball team used a smothering defense to defeat Ball State, 70-48, before 5,556 fans at Savage Arena on Saturday.
 
Toledo (21-4, 13-1 MAC) entered the game tied with Ball State (23-4, 12-2 MAC) for the top spot in conference, as both teams seek the No. 1 seed in next month's MAC Tournament and the Rockets look to win their third consecutive regular-season crown.
 
But after a slow start, the showdown turned out to be no contest, as Toledo built a 27-16 halftime lead into a 17-point margin at the end of the third quarter and as much as 26 points in the final period. The victory was the Rockets' ninth-consecutive and 21^st in a row at home vs. MAC opponents.
 
The Rockets held Ball State to just 18-of-54 (33.3%) shooting and out-rebounded the Cardinals, 47-26. In the last two games, including Wednesday's 68-36 win over Miami, Toledo has held its opponents to 42.0 ppg and 29.5% from the field.
 
"I'm really, really proud of our defensive effort today," said Head Coach Tricia Cullop. "To hold a team that is that potent offensively to 48 points was simply exceptional. I thought (assistant coach) Danielle Page did a phenomenal job with the scout and our staff did a wonderful job of preparing them on the defensive end. I just can't speak enough about what our defense has done in the last two games."
 
Senior guard Sammi Mikonowicz led the offense with a career-high tying 24 points (18 in the second half) on 10-of-14 from the field. She added five rebounds, three assists and tied her career high with four steals. Senior guard Quinesha Lockett and junior center Jessica Cook each added 10 points, while Lockett also had nine rebounds and three assists. Senior guard Sophia Wiard had a season-low four points but stuffed her stat line with a career-high tying 11 rebounds and six assists.
 
Toledo will try to make it 10 wins in a row when it travels to Northern Illinois (13-13, 6-8 MAC) on Wednesday (7:00 p.m. ET/ESPN+).
         
1^st Quarter

• Ball State started the game with a 4-0 lead. Toledo missed its first six shots and finally broke through when Quinesha Lockett hit a jumper with 5:24 left in the first quarter.
• Back-to-back triples by Khera Goss and Quinesha Lockett helped Toledo end the quarter on an 8-0 run that gave the Rockets a 10-6 lead at the break.

2^nd Quarter

•  The Rockets extended their lead to 14-6 with a 4-0 run to open the quarter.
• Ball State cut the lead to three when Marie Kiefer hit a pair of free throws and sank a three-pointer to make the score 14-11 with 6:50 left until the break.
• Toledo answered with a 6-0 run capped off by a Jessica Cook bucket that increased its lead to 20-11 with 3:26 left.
• The Rockets scored the final seven points of the half to take a 27-16 lead into the locker room.
• Toledo made 12-of-31 (38.7%) shots from the field and held BSU to just 5-of-24 (20.8%) shooting.

3^rd Quarter

• Back-to-back layups from BSU's Alex Richard to open the second half cut the Rocket lead to 27-20.
• UT embarked on a 9-2 scoring run capped off by a Hannah Noveroske layup to extend the lead to 37-22 with 6:15 left in the third quarter.
• Toledo scored the final six points of the quarter, four by Jessica Cook, to close out the third quarter with a 52-35 lead.

4^th Quarter

• The Rockets opened the fourth quarter on a 6-0 scoring run to increase the Toledo lead to 58-35 with 6:19 left in the game.
• Sammi Mikonowicz scored 12 straight Toledo points capped off by a driving layup at the 3:56 mark to increase the Rocket lead to 66-41.
• Ball State scored six straight points to cut the margin to 20, 68-48, with a little over a minute left to play.

NOTES

• Toledo is now 79-15 (48-4 MAC) over the past three seasons, including 39-4 at Savage Arena (25-1 MAC).
•  The Rockets have now won 21 consecutive MAC home games.
•  Saturday's attendance of 5,556 was the third-largest of the season and also the third crowd of more than 5,000. Going into today's game, Toledo was leading the MAC and was 29^th in the nation in home attendance with an average of 4,413 fans per game.
•  Toledo held Ball State to just 16 first-half points, the second consecutive game in which the Rockets held their opponents to just 16 points at the break (32-16 vs. Miami on Feb. 21). Toledo also held Eastern Michigan to 14 points in the opening 20 minutes on Jan. 6.
•  Saturday's game was Toledo's annual "Rockets for the Cure" game to promote the fight against breast cancer. The Rockets wore pink jerseys against the Cardinals, and those jerseys were auctioned online following the game. All proceeds from the auction will benefit Susan G. Komen Northwest Ohio and the Eleanor N. Dana Cancer Center.  The Rockets have raised over $170,000 for this cause since 2010.