ROCKETS OUTLAST ST. FRANCIS IN WNIT OPENER

November 12, 2010 - It wasn't easy, and it wasn't very pretty, but in the end Toledo found a way to overcome a good St. Francis of Pennsylvania team and walk away with a hard-fought 71-66 win in the opening round of the preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament. The Friday evening game at Savage Arena was played in front of a sparse crowd of about 800 fans.

It took a near half-court, off-balance, off-glass shot by Naama Shafir with 20 seconds remaining in the game to finally seal the deal for Toledo and send the Red Flash back to PA with the loss. The Rockets had a 68-66 lead, and the ball, with 30 seconds left on the clock when Shafir drove inside to attempt a layup, only to have the shot swatted away by SFP’s Shene Fleming. Courtney Ingersoll then went inside to battle for the ball and swatted it back out to Shafir who had moved out near mid-court. With the shot clock down to four seconds, the junior point guard gave the ball a heave and it went through the net a hair before the buzzer sounded for a violation.

Apparently St. Francis wasn't aware that not many visiting teams leave Toledo with a win after playing the Rockets, or if they were told of UT’s home dominance, they weren't all that impressed, because they came out smoking right from the opening tip. For the better part of the first five minutes everything that SFP threw at the basket went in and everything Toledo threw up bounced off iron.

The Red Flash sprinted out to a 15-4 lead in the first four minutes of the contest while the Rockets were struggling to find some offense. UT didn't get its first field goal until Shafir hit a 3-pointer at the 15:14 mark. Toledo closed to within three points, 15-12 on an 8-0 run, but struggled to stay with the visitors throughout the half.

The Rockets managed to tie the score twice, but it seemed as if each time the Midnight Blue and Gold looked ready to take command of the game, some sloppy team defense or a turnover would allow the Red Flash to maintain a slim lead.

Toledo was down by five points with less than a minute to play in the half when a pair of free throws from Melissa Goodall and a Yolanda Richardson layup brought them within a point, 42-41 at the buzzer.

St. Francis shot a respectable 45.7% (16-of-35) in the first stanza, while the Rockets were 12-of-36 for 33.3%

The play of forward Melissa Goodall and some excellent free-throw shooting kept the game from getting out of hand for Toledo during the opening period. While the other Rockets were struggling to find their shooting eyes the senior tri-captain led all scorers early on with 12 points, going 4-of-7 from the floor. In addition to her scoring Goodall also grabbed six rebounds and blocked three shots before intermission. Toledo’s starting guard combination of Shafir and Jessica Williams each tallied nine points to help the Rocket cause but they were a combined 3-of-11 from the floor. Despite getting out-shot in that first half, Toledo made good on 15-of-17 free throws while St. Francis was just 5-of-8 from the line.

Right from the start of the second half it was evident that Tricia Cullop had talked to the team during the break about that leaky defense, because the Rockets came out and immediately tightened things up. After pulling up even with the Red Flash twice in the first two minutes, UT grabbed its first lead, 49-48, on another Shafir 3-pointer. A 10-2 Toledo run soon widened the margin to 59-50, but St. Francis answered with an 8-0 run of its own to make the score 59-58 with less than five minutes remaining.

Goodall scored her 18^th point of the night on a layup and Williams hit a trey to make the score 64-58 with 3:43 remaining. St Francis however, came right back with four points to stay within a deuce, 64-62.

Ingersoll hoisted an air ball from deep in the corner on Toledo’s next possession but Goodall was in position to grab the rebound and score on the put back, making it 64-62.

Toledo was struggling to hold onto 68-66 lead with less then a minute to go when Ingersoll stepped up big to corral two consecutive offensive rebounds, When Goodall misfired on a 3-point attempt with 54 seconds remaining, the junior tri-captain came down with the ball to keep the possession alive, and 20 seconds later repeated the feat to set the stage for Shafir’s final points, and the game.

Shafir finished with 21 points, leading all scorers on the evening. Goodall checked out with 20 points, and her senior teammate Williams collected 15 markers.

After allowing St. Francis to score 42 points in the first half, Toledo held the visitors to 24 points in the final go-round. Four players were able to reach double digits for the Red Flash.

Toledo had a 44-36 edge in rebounds with sophomore Yolanda Richardson collecting a game-high 11 boards. The Rockets also finished with 18 assists, 22 turnovers, and 15 steals. After the sparkling free throw shooting that kept UT in the game over the first 20 minutes, Toledo was unable to get to the charity stripe in the second half.

Next up for the Rockets is a date with the Purdue Boilermakers on Monday in West Lafayette, IN. Purdue pummeled Austin Peay University at home 93-53 in that WNIT opener.