Rockets Down the Chips

The Toledo Rockets defended their home court once again with a 72-61 victory over the Central Michigan Chippewas in front of an announced crowd of 5,267. Junior Ty Kent led the way for the Rockets with 20 points. Toledo has now won 10 straight games against Central Michigan.

Toledo (5-10, 2-1) rebounded from a bad loss to Northern Illinois by playing very well in front of a packed student section on Wednesday to beat Central Michigan (6-9, 1-2) 72-61.

Tyrone Kent led the Rockets' balanced scoring attack with 20 points. Kent hit two 3-pointers late to help the Rockets close off Central’s comeback bid.

Also scoring in double figures were Jonathan Amos and Ridley Johnson with 19 and 10 points respectively.

The Rockets were looking to head into halftime with a 10 point lead until Central Michigan guard Giordan Watson swished an almost full court shot as time expired. Watson led all scorers with 23 points.

The Chippewas came out of halftime strong and went on a 7-0 run to tie the game with 17:05 left. That was the only time besides the opening tip-off that the Rockets were not ahead.

Jerrah Young continued his dominance down low, as he forced 6 of Central's season high 32 fouls. Young followed up by hitting 9 of 11 free throws. As a team Toledo shot 72.5% from the charity stripe. Coach Joplin must have focused on free throws in practice after they only hit 48% of them at NIU.

Lack of depth continues to show for Toledo by only getting 5 points off the bench. Former walk-on Anthony Byrd has showed that he belongs in the Rockets future and Joplin has awarded him the final scholarship Toledo has to offer for basketball this year.

Toledo finishes out the first series of MAC west games with two road games against Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan and returns home to start the crossover games with a men/women double header against Buffalo on Saturday January 26.