by CLEVELAND, OH – The Toledo Rockets defeated the UMASS Minutemen 77-67 to advance to the MAC Championship game Saturday night. They were led by a quartet of hot shooters as Sonny Wilson scored 18 while Myron Strong had 17 and Sean Craig titled 15. The Rockets finished their double-digit scorers as Leroy Blyden had 12.
The Minutemen fought hard but could never quite get the momentum fully in their favor after holding a first half lead for all of 1:47 total. The Minutemen were led in scoring by Leonardo Bettiol with 21 and Danny Carbuccia with 12.
Toledo jumped out to a quick 13-2 lead on the strength of back-to-back three’s by Strong and Craig as it was a dominating first 4 minutes of action for the Rockets. They kept the lead at double digits for quite a bit as Sonny Wilson had his way in and out of the lane for 7 of the Rockets first 20 points.
From there, UMASS went on an impressive run to slice into the lead 24-20 with 7:47 to play in the first half. The mini run was fueled by 7 from Leonardo Bettiol and a Marcus Banks three to give the Minutemen some much needed life.
A few minutes later a three ball from Placide and then a breakaway dunk by Carbuccia gave the Minutemen their first lead of the game at 27-26 with 5:45 remaining in the opening half. The Rockets answered with a run to put them up 33-29 with 3:16 to play. The teams continued to battle back and forth until going to the break with the Rockets up 43-34.
Through the first 12 minutes of the second half, the lead remained at 9 as the teams squared off 22-22 through that time. A three ball by Mynor Strong pushed the lead to 10 at 70-60 with 6:39 to play.
The Minutemen struggled to ever really close in on the lead from there as the Rockets held on for the win. The Rockets will now play the winner of the Akron vs Kent State game tomorrow night for the MAC Championship.
