CLEVELAND, Ohio – No. 1 seed Toledo fought back from a 12-point deficit but couldn't come all the way back in a 67-59 loss to No. 8 seed Kent State in quarterfinal action of the Mid-American Conference Tournament at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland on Thursday.
 
Junior Dante Maddox Jr. scored 19 points for the Rockets, who could not overcome a tough day shooting, both from the field (22-56/39.3%) and the free throw line (10-21/47.6%).
 
"A major disappointment," said Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk. "It came down to two things. In the first half I felt we missed some shots at the rim that we normally make. But it comes down to free-throw shooting. Say anything else you want, but it comes down to those two things. We were the best free-throw shooting team here and we went 10-of-21. You can't miss foul shots in conference tournament games."
 
Kent State (16-16) was led by junior VonCameron Davis' 26 points and 12 rebounds. The Golden Flashes made just 5-of-23 three-pointers but scored 42 points in the paint.
 
"A huge key was we had to defend the three-point line. We did," said Kowalczyk. "We gave up 67 points. Good defensive effort. You gotta make foul shots and you have to make shots you normally make."
 
After jumping out to a 7-2 lead, Toledo trailed most of the way. Kent State led 28-24 at halftime and led by as many as 12 points in the second half before the Rockets rallied to cut the lead to five, 54-49, late in the contest. But KSU outscored Toledo 13-10 the rest of the way to advance to the semifinals on Friday to play the winner of No. 4 seed Central Michigan and No. 5 seed Bowling Green.
 
Toledo (20-12), which won the MAC regular season title for a fourth consecutive season, will now have to wait until Sunday night to find out if its season will continue in post-season play.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

FIRST HALF

• Toledo jumped out to a 7-2 lead but Kent State's VonCameron Davis scored eight points in a 13-3 run that gave KSU a 15-10 advantage going into the second media timeout at 10:31.
• Toledo battled back to take a 22-21 lead with 4:46 remaining following a three-pointer by Andre Lorentsson and a layup from Ra'Heim Moss.
• Kent State finished out the half on a 7-0 run to take a 28-22 lead. Tyler Cochran's driving shot with 32 seconds left made the score 28-24 going into the locker room.
• Toledo shot just 9-of-26 (34.6%) from the field and 4-of-9 (44.4%) from the free-throw line in the first half. Dante Maddox Jr. led the way with eight points.
• KSU shot 13-of-28 (46.4%) from the field but did not attempt a free throw.

SECOND HALF

• Kent State started the second half by outscoring the Rockets 7-2, extending its lead to 35-26 at the 17:16 mark.
• Following a three-pointer by Maddox, KSU's Davis hit an inside bucket and Mike Bekelja knocked down a triple to push the Golden Flash lead to 40-29 and force Toledo to call timeout with 14:31 left.
• Toledo trimmed the lead to 40-32 but Kent State responded with a bucket and a pair of free throws to go up 44-32, its largest lead of the game, with a little more than 10 minutes left.
• Toledo fought back, with a Tyler Cochran three-pointer capping a 10-4 run to cut the lead to 48-42 with 6:56 left.
• A Lorentsson layup cut the lead to five, 54-49, but Kent answered with a three-pointer by Giovanni Santiago and a layup from Davis to push the lead to 59-51 with 2:30 remaining.
• KSU made 6-of-8 free throws down the stretch to clinch the victory.