CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Toledo men's basketball team fell behind early to No. 1 seed Akron and despite a valiant effort in the second half could never quite catch up in a 100-90 loss to the Zips in the semifinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament at Rocket Arena in Cleveland on Friday.
 
Toledo (18-15) fell down 14-4 early in the first half and played from behind the rest of the way. The Rockets cut the lead to five points midway through the second half but never got any closer.
 
The Rockets were led by a career-high 28 points from Seth Hubbard, along with 23 points from Sam Lewis. The Rockets shot 49.2% (29-of-59) from the floor but were outshone by Akron's 32-of-57 (56.1%) shooting, including 10-18 from behind the arc.

Quoting Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk

"That's a really good Akron team. They space the floor. They started out making those four threes, like that. I thought we made some adjustments. If you look at he stat sheet, it's almost identical. The difference in the game was they made five more threes than we did in a 10-point loss. That was the difference."

Rocket Leaders

• Seth Hubbard – 28 points, 8-14 FGs, 11-12 FTs (career high scoring)
• Sam Lewis – 23 points, 4 rebounds, 2-3 3FG
• Javan Simmons – 18 points, 7 rebounds
• Sonny Wilson – 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists

Team Stats
Toledo: 49.2 FG%, 29.4 3PTFG% (5-17), 84.4 FT% (27-32), 27 Reb., 11 Asst., 7 TO
Akron: 56.1 FG%, 55.6 3PTFG% (10-18), 78.8 FT% (26-33), 28 Reb., 13 Asst., 6 TO
 
How it Happened

• Akron came out firing, knocking down four of its first five three-point attempts to take an early 14-4 lead.
• Toledo battled back, cutting the margin to 33-30 on a Sam Lewis three-pointer with 7:18 left in the first half.
• Akron ended the half on a 19-11 run to take a 52-41 lead into the locker room.
• Lewis (14 points) and Javan Simmons (12) combined for 26 of Toledo's 41 first-half points, making nine of their 11 attempts. The Rockets shot 14-29 (48.3%) from the floor while the Zips were 17-26 (65.4), including 5-7 from long range.
• The Rockets clawed back in the second half, as Seth Hubbard and Sonny Wilson scored 24 of Toledo's first 26 points. A pair of Hubbard free throws cut the Zip lead to 70-65 with 11:02 to play.
• Toledo never got any closer the rest of the way, however, as Akron went on an 11-5 run late in the game to make it 97-83 with less than two minutes to play.