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Toledo, OH - Toledo closed out its 2009-10 home campaign in winning fashion Saturday with a 45-42 triumph over MAC West Division leader Ball State (15-13, 8-7 MAC). The victory dropped the Cardinals into a first-place tie with Central Michigan (14-14, 8-7 MAC) and Eastern Michigan (16-13, 8-7 MAC) atop the division standings.
The Rockets' victory, meanwhile, was their eighth straight in Savage Arena vs. the Cardinals and also extended UT's streak of winning its final home contest of the season to 14 games.
Junior forrward Justin Anyijong led Toledo (4-26, 1-14 MAC) with 13 points and seven rebounds and came up with one of his career-high tying three blocks in the final seconds to help secure the victory.
"It feels great to get this win," Anyijong said. "We've been building towards this, and we've had really good practices the last two days. I'm very proud of my teammates and also the coaching staff for the way they kept having faith in us. They've kept pushing us every day and tried to bring the best out in us."
Ball State was led by the trio of sophomore guard Randy Davis (14 pts.), sophomore forward Jarrod Jones (13 pts., 11 reb.) and freshman G Jauwan Scaife (11 pts.). The Cardinals shot just 26.7 percent for the game and were 1-for-12 from three-point range. The last time UT held a team to 42 points was a 54-42 win over Buffalo on Feb. 20, 2002, and the last time a UT NCAA Division I opponent shot as low as the Cardinals was Ohio's 29.2 percent in a 66-53 Toledo win on Jan. 31, 2001.
"We came in with a defensive game plan and our guys followed it to a 'T'," Toledo head coach Gene Cross said. "The one thing I told the team was that we bent but we didn't break. We were poised enough to make it through, and I thought Justin Anyijong came up with a great block at the end of the game for us."
The Rockets never trailed in the contest and took their largest lead of the first half when sophomore guard Jay Shunnar drilled his second trey of the game for a 26-10 advantage with 4:14 remaining.
UT took a 30-15 advantage into the locker room after outshooting the Cardinals 48 percent (12-for-25) to 15.8 percent (3-for-19) in the first 20 minutes.
Toledo was able to keep its lead in double digits until an 8-0 Cardinal run brought the visitors within 39-33 with 4:25 to play. Freshman guard Malcolm Griffin and Anyijong answered, though, with a back-to-back layups to restore the Rockets' 10-point cushion.
Ball State wouldn't go quietly and closed the gap to 43-39 on Jones' layup with a minute remaining. Shunnar then knocked down a pair of free throws to give the Rockets some breathing room, but Scaife drilled a three-pointer to bring the Cardinals within 45-42 with 47 ticks remaning.
Ball State came up with a steal and Anyijong's block of Davis' layup with 16 seconds left appeared to lock up the win for UT. Freshman guard Jake Barnett missed the front end of a one-and-one though and Scaife's three-point attempt was short with five seconds remaining. Freshman guard Kevin Rohner also missed another free throw, but Myron Green's three-point attempt was off at the buzzer.
"Although we made some mistakes, I was very happy that our guys were able to make the right plays that we needed to win," Cross said. "I was very pleased and happy for them."
Toledo will close out its regular season Thursday with a trip to DeKalb, IL to meet Northern Illinois (9-19, 5-10 MAC). Tip-off time is set for 8:00 p.m. (ET). Ball State will be at Michigan Michigan (7 p.m.).
Courtesy of UT Athletics
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