RALLY FALLS SHORT AGAINST EASTERN MICHIGAN

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January 11, 2012 - Toledo spotted the Eastern Michigan Eagles a 14-point, 47-33, half-time lead at Savage Arena Wednesday evening and that point margin was enough to send the visitors back to Ypsilanti, MI with a 70-66 conference win.

The loss snapped a 17 game conference home winning streak for Toledo. But ending the streak might be the least of Tricia Cullop's worries as the defending WNIT champs are now 1-2 in the MAC West Division, their worst start since Cullop took over the Toledo job in 2008.

Sloppy play permeated Toledo's game right from the opening tip as sophomore point guard Andola Dortch was guilty of a pair of turnovers within the first minute of play and this set the tone for the rest of the half as UT was guilty of 14 miscues in the first 20 minutes. ”We came out in the first half playing short”, said junior Yolanda Richardson, “and we need to have momentum from beginning to end.” Momentum was just a word in the dictionary for Toledo in the opening period.

The game was close for the first eight minutes and was tied at 15 after Richardson converted the front end of a one-and-one, but the big center missed on her second attempt and, although no one new it at the time, the home team would be playing catch-up for the rest of the contest.

Led by the mercurial Tavelyn James, who had 23 of her game high 30 points before the break, Eastern Michigan controlled the tempo of the game in breaking out to that 14-point half time lead. James, who can score from just about anywhere on the floor, was 7-of-14 before intermission, including three 3-pointers, and she was a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.

Defensively the Eagles employed full-court pressure and a 2-3 zone defense against Toledo. That press seemed to bother the Rockets early on and contributed to some of their turnover problems. In fact, the opportunistic visitors took full advantage of UT's inclination for turning the ball over, scoring 19 points as a direct result of those 14 miscues. Meanwhile, EMU was guilty of just six errors in the first 20 minutes.

Dortch was whistled for her third personal foul with just a little over six minutes to play in the half and was replaced in the lineup by sophomore Janelle Reed-Lewis who ended up being Toledo's point leader at the break with eight markers.

James, who has had a history of torching Toledo during her career, seemed to be all over the court in tallying her 23 first-half points, and she got a big assist from sophomore Natachia Watkins who garnered 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor.

Toledo switched to a zone defense in the second half in an attempt to slow James and Company down and the tactic worked. The Midnight Blue and Gold eventually came so close, but on Tuesday evening their were no cigars.

The Rockets upped their intensity level in the second half and took much better care of the basketball (five turnovers), but reeling in Eastern Michigan was proving to be a daunting task, until the final five minutes of the game.

The Eagles were cruising along with a 64-51 lead when Courtney Ingersoll hit a triple from the corner at the 5:06 mark. Following a layup by Richardson, Ingersoll struck from long distance a second time to close within five points, 64-59, with 3:15 to play.

After an EMU basket,. junior Kyle Baumgartner, whose shots had been rimming out all evening finally got one to drop from beyond the arc, and her effort was quickly followed up by Richardson who scored on a short jumper in the paint. Suddenly it was a two-point game, 66-64, with just under a minute left.

After Eastern's Paige Redditt connected on a pair of free throws to make it a four point game, Toledo missed a golden opportunity to keep it ever so close when Dortch misfired on the front end of a one-and-one with 70 ticks on the clock.

Dortch's layup at 00:35 brought the Rockets back to within a deuce at 68-66 but Eastern had the ball and Toledo was forced to foul to send EMU to the line. At such a late hour in the game, however, UT had just three fouls against them, which meant that they would have to commit four additional fouls before the bonus kicked in. And time was precious at this juncture.

With six seconds remaining Toledo finally committed its seventh foul, sending James to the line for a one-and-one. If James converts both three throws then the game is lost for the Rockets. James made the first shot but tanked the second. Unfortunately for UT the rebound was grabbed by EMU's Redditt and the senior was promptly fouled by Haylie Linn. Redditt knocked down her first shot, giving the Eagles the game,

After going off on Toledo in the first half, James was held in check during the second period, finishing with 30 points. Watkins and Redditt added 13 points each for Eastern Michigan.

The Rockets tightened up the defense considerably in the second half after being drilled for 47 points before the break,. The Eagles could muster just 23 points in the final stanza, but the damage had already been done.

Dortch and Richardson each had 11 points to lead the Toledo scoring and Tricia Cullop also got a strong performance from sophomore transfer Brianna Jones who had 10 points in a reserve role..Jones' point total was her career best as a Rocket. Reed-Lewis added nine points in 11 minutes of action.

“This game was a tough pill to swallow,” said Tricia Cullop in the post-game media conference.. “I'm proud of the second-half effort of the team and I really thought they fought back and gave it everything that they had. But we have to solve one thing in a hurry and that is to have a better first-half effort, especially the first 10 minutes. We've got to quit spotting teams points in the first half then hope for a miracle comeback, especially against good team like Eastern Michigan, It's frustrating, but the good news is we've got a lot more games to play and we've got a chance to improve and get better.”

3,710 fans came out on a cold rainy evening to cheer on the Rockets.

Toledo (8-7, 1-2 MAC) needs to get better soon because the next game is this Saturday afternoon at Northern Illinois, always a tough place to play for the Midnight Blue and Gold.