ROCKETS DROP FINALE IN 2K SPORTS CLASSIC

The host Toledo Rockets lost their third and final game of the 2K Sports Classic, falling to the College of Charleston (COFC), 64-51 in a Sunday afternoon game at Savage Arena.

COFC is a member of the Southern Conference and is located in Charleston, SC. The men’s basketball team is coached by Bobby Cremins, a legend among college coaches who had a 19-year career at Georgia Tech, guiding the Yellow Jackets to 14 post-season tournament appearances during his tenure. Last season, he guided the Cougars to a 22-12 overall record and a second-place finish in the league’s south division.

COFC entered Sunday’s final round-robin game with a 1-1 record in the previous games. On Friday the Cougars lost to Rhode Island, 75-66, but bounced back on Saturday downing Illinois-Chicago, 78-66.

The undermanned Rockets understood that they were decided underdogs coming into the game, but a solid second-half performance against Rhode Island on Saturday provided some encouragement in tipping off against the visitors.

Although they trailed the Cougars from beginning, Toledo played with some confidence for the first 10 minutes, tying the game at 16 before the roof partially collapsed on them. UT was even doing a pretty good job of handling Charleston’s three-quarter court zone-press that was thrown at them for just about the entire game before sophomore guard Andrew Lawrence hit a 3-pointer to ignite a 20-8 run that put COFC up 36-22 at the half.

It was more of the same in the second half as the talented Cougars extended their lead to as many as 26 points before Cremins began to insert his reserves. Toledo regained some of its composure in the final five minutes of the game to whittle the lead down to 15 points, 62-47, when Zack Leahy hit a pair of free throws to cap an 11-0 Toledo run with 3:38 to play.

Cremins decided he had seen enough at that juncture and began reinserting some of his original starters back into the lineup. UT did score the final four points of the game when 6-10 freshman Richard Wonnell went hard to the basket for a layup and Malcolm Griffin drained a jumper before COFC ran our the clock.

Andrew Goudelock, Charleston’s top point producer on the season, had a game-high 17 points for the winners. The Cougars also had two other players reach double-figures.

Griffin came off the bench to lead Toledo in scoring with 12 points. The sophomore guard also had a game-high five assists. Freshman forward Delino Dear had his second consecutive double-digit night with 10 points. Once again Hayden Humes stepped up with a strong game. Humes collected seven points, a game-high eight rebounds, three assists, and a steal in 37 minutes of action.

Another freshman, Reese Holliday, was kept out of the game because of a head injury incurred in the Rhode Island game.

Freshman point guard J.T. Thomas racked up 25 minute of playing time but he was pretty much a non factor in the game, scoring four points, grabbing two rebounds, and dishing out two assists.

Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk in speaking of Toledo’s performance said, “I don’t think we’ve started a game strong and aggressively yet this season and it’s becoming a habit that we need to correct very quickly. It was obviously a poor start with our turnovers against their press. I thought today that we had a great pregame and a walk-through, and that the guys were focused, but we played like we had a lot of freshmen out there. We played scared.”

If the final stat sheet is correct then Toledo had 13 turnovers for the game, one less that Charleston.

With Sunday’s loss Toledo’s record drops to 0-5 and the team will now prepare for a road game against Youngstown State on Wednesday.