ROCKETS DISMANTLE NORTHERN ILLINOIS, 71-41

Wednesday's opponent would be the young Northern Illinois Huskies, a team with a 2-13 record but a team that also owned a 74-66 home win over Central Michigan, the same Central Michigan team that spanked Toledo 85-69 on Jan. 7, in Mt. Pleasant.

Leading the Huskies into Savage Arena was first-year coach Mark Montgomery, one of three new coaches in the conference this year and part of a 56-man group who are in their inaugural year of coaching Division 1 basketball.

And much like Toledo, the Northern Illinois roster is filled with players who may have just become eligible to vote. Seven freshman are counted among the 14 players who made the trip to Toledo. NIU starts three freshmen, one sophomore, and a lone senior, 6-7, 258# Tim Toler, who is the team's leading scorer, averaging 11.1 points an outing.

The game began well for Toledo with Reese Holliday hitting a three-pointer just seconds after the opening tip, but the Huskies bounced right back on the strength of five offensive rebounds, to grab a 7-5 lead at the 16:25 mark. “We were getting our rear-ends kicked on the glass,” is how Kowalczyk put it.

The Rockets seemed to get their collective rear-ends on the same page just before the second media timeout when Dominique Buckley went strong to the basket to give UT a 12-11 lead. Then things just seemed to fall into place for the home team.

After “Juice” Brown hit from long distance to give Toledo a 15-11 lead, the Rockets then went over two minutes without sniffing a point until Curtis Dennis struck from beyond the arc with 8:33 on the first-half clock. That trey, however, ignited a 22-5 run that didn't stop until the horn sounded. By then the scoreboard read 37-18 in favor of the Midnight Blue and Gold.

Sometime during that big Toledo run, Northern Illinois seemed to lose its way and the Dogs never did get back on the right path. Despite having a 15-11 edge in rebounds NIU was very careless in protecting the ball, committing 13 turnovers that Toledo converted into 17 points.

The Rockets also had the hot hand from the floor during the first 20 minutes, connecting on 13-of-22 for 59.1%. UT was also 5-of-8 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. The Huskies were just 8-of-24 shooting in the opening period for 33.3%.

Despite the 19-point half time lead Kowalczyk wasn't all that pleased with the effort of his charges. ”Honestly, I didn't think we played that well in the first half. But we stayed together, grinding it out, and the next thing you know, we built up a pretty good sized lead. We haven't closed out some halves well, but tonight we did.”

As Northern Illinois continued to struggle at both ends of the floor in the second half, the Rockets just kept adding to their point total, thanks in part to Dennis, Holliday, and Buckley. Dennis entered the contest four minutes into the first half and finished as the game's leading scorer with 18 points. “I've been struggling lately,” said the junior from the Bronx, New York. “Today I just wanted to come out and get back into a rhythm. My teammates found me and set some great screens, so I was able to hit some shots tonight.” Dennis was 6-of-10 from the floor, including three three-pointers, and a perfect 3-of-3 at the charity stripe.

In the second half the visitors even threw a 2-2-1 zone press at Toledo, but to no avail as the lead continued to grow until walk-on freshman Zack Riddle dropped in a pair of free throws in the final minute to close out the scoring.

Backing up Dennis in the scoring department were Holliday (11 points) and Buckley (10 points). Buckley also finished the evening with four assists, four steals, and a block.

Toledo's leading scorer on the season, Rian Pearson, struggled somewhat in the game scoring just eight points and getting whistled for eight turnovers. Pearson did, however, finish with a game-high nine rebounds.

Northern Illinois made just five field goals after intermission in shooting 26.3% for the final 20 minutes. Toledo cooled off just a little in the second half, making 12-of-25 shots, for 48% but still finished the contest at 53.2%.

After struggling on the glass early in the game, Toledo boarded much better after the break, finishing with a 32-27 advantage.

In addition to the performance of Dennis, Kowalczyk also got some good minutes from Richard Wonnell and freshman guard A.J. Mathew. Mathew recorded four points in 14 minutes of playing time.  “I thought our bench was great tonight,” said Kowalczyk. “A.J. Mathew came in and did a wonderful job, and I thought Richard (Wonnell) and Dennis gave us some good minutes. Our bench was especially good in the first half.”

The Huskies finished the game with just five assists and 23 turnovers while Toledo had 14 assists and 17 turnovers. The opportunistic Rockets, however, were able to turn the NIU turnovers into 28 points.

So the Rockets now have their first conference victory and pull up even with Northern Illinois at 1-3.

Two points of information: The last time Toledo bested a conference opponent by as much as 30 points was an 88-58 shellacking of Eastern Michigan back in 2006, and the last time Toledo held a conference opponent to just 41 points was way back in January, 1998 when Bowling Green went down at the hands of a Stan Joplin team, 53-41, in old Savage Hall.

Next on the schedule for Toledo is a short 40-minute trip up to Ypsilanti, MI on Saturday, Jan. 21 to take on the Eastern Michigan Eagles, current West Division co-leaders. Game time is 2:00 PM.

So, back to that basketball program with the words, “The Future Starts Now.” Toledo fans everywhere are hoping the future started with Wednesday's win over Northern Illinois.