Toledo,
OH - A short-handed Toledo team also came up very short Saturday evening against
the Eastern Illinois Panthers, 75-58, in an ESPN-Sears BracketBuster game at
Savage Arena.
The deck was stacked against Toledo
a couple of days before the contest even began when the team learned that
starting freshman forward Reese Holliday ,the team’s leading rebounder and
second leading scorer, would be sidelined for the rest of the season because of
a stress fracture in his foot. With freshman point guard J.T. Thomas also out
indefinitely with a foot injury, one couldn’t blame Coach Tod Kowalczyk if he
had gotten on the Savage Arena microphone and asked for volunteers from the fans
in the stands to report to the locker room to suit up.
The Toledo team that took the floor for
the pregame warmups consisted of five scholarship players and four walk-ons. The
starting five at tipoff time was composed of three scholarship players: Anthony
Wright, Delano Dear, and Malcolm Griffin; along with little used freshman Jess
Chadwell, subbing for Holliday, and Jay Shunnar; neither of whom are on
scholarship. None the less, it was hoped that UT could compete on its home floor
with Eastern Illinois, a team out of the Ohio Valley Conference that came into
town with an 8-18 record.
The Panthers started out strong, taking an
early 9-2 lead, and maintained their margin until a 7-0 mini run brought Toledo
to within a point, 16-15 at the 11:55 mark. The Rockets couldn’t sustain the
momentum however and the visitors then ran off eight straight points to open up
a nine-point cushion, 24-15.
Toledo got some long-distance help from
Justin Anyijong and Shunnar, who each connected from beyond the arc in the last
minute of the half, to cut the lead to 30-28, but a buzzer-beater heave from
EIU’s Jeremy Granger made it a five-point, 33-28 game going into intermission.
After Toledo’s Dear converted a free throw
to bring the Rockets to within a point of Eastern Illinois, 35-34, early in the
second half, the Panthers went on a 12-2 run that took the wind out of UT’s
sails, and the team never recovered to make a serious challenge for the rest of
the game.
Eastern Illinois placed four players in
double-digits led by a game-high 20 points from junior guard Granger. Also
stepping up big for the visitors were a trio of starters: Curry McKinney had 17
points while Shaun Pratl and James Hollowell each tallied 11 points. In addition
to his point production Granger also had a game-high eight rebounds.
The Panthers finished the evening shooting
48% (24-of-50) and had a strong night at the charity stripe, converting on
20-of-22 tosses. The visitors also had a commanding lead on the glass,
out-muscling Toledo 35-22.
Toledo got a strong game from Shunnar who
led the team in scoring with 16 points. Anyijong, who has played some quality
minutes in the last two games, had 12 points in a losing cause. Griffin,
Toledo’s leading scorer on the season finished the night with seven points.
Griffin also recorded eight assists and two steals.
UT shot 39.6% (19-of-48) for the game. The
Rockets also hoisted up 28 three-point shots, connecting on nine of them.
Chadwell, Holliday’s replacement, had four
points and five rebounds in 18 minutes of action.
The Rockets have now lost nine consecutive
games and there isn’t any relief in sight as the team now prepares for a
Wednesday road game at Western Michigan.