 "Photo: Nick Kneer / IC")
 "Photo: Jason Mack / IC")
Toledo lost 63-46 at Central Michigan last night for its school-record 16th-consecutive loss. The Rockets (3-23, 0-12 Mid-American Conference) are now 0-28 on the road under head coach Gene Cross and just 1-43 away from Savage Arena since the 2007-08 season. Cross is 10-48 in his career at UT.
Freshman guard Jake Barnett led Toledo with 10 points and grabbed four rebounds. Junior forward Justin Anyijong and freshman guard Josh Freelove scored nine points each, while freshman forward Jordan Dressler led the Rockets with six rebounds. Central Michigan’s Robbie Harman and Jordan Bitzer led the Chippewas’ attack with 18 and 15 points, respectively.
The Rockets were in the game until Central Michigan (12-12, 7-5 MAC) outscored UT 14-0 in a 4:47 span between the first and second half. Toledo went into halftime trailing by just six, but the Chippewas went on a 10-0 run to start the second half and extended their lead to 16 with 17:30 remaining in the game.
“You go from being six down to being sixteen down, you try to stop the bleeding, you call a timeout and say, ‘Okay, guys—let’s figure out what just happened here,’” Cross said. “The first four minutes are key, and we didn’t do a very good job. They did a good job of executing and getting what they needed.
“There were some lapses in our communication, which has happened to us time and time again, and it can’t happen.”
The Rockets shot 35.7 percent from the field in the contest compared to Central Michigan’s 42.6 percent, while the Chippewas also outrebounded Toledo 33-26.
“The two guys that we wanted to key on—Bitzer and Harman—are the two guys that hurt us,” Cross said. “We were doing everything we laid out [in the first half]. The only thing we did was we fouled and put them to the free throw line, and they scored off of free throws. We felt fortunate to only be down six with all those guys in foul trouble.
“So, you put yourself in a position to win, but then you come out and basically have no energy or no focus. We’ve got to do better.”
Despite playing good defense in the opening period, the Rockets were hindered by foul trouble. After scoring five of Toledo’s first eight points to give the Rockets a quick 8-2 lead just 2:12 into the contest, Anyijong picked up his second foul at the 13:52 mark and was limited to seven minutes in the period. The Rockets had seven fouls with 10:10 to go in the first half and finished with a total of 10 by halftime.
Central Michigan, meanwhile, outscored Toledo 15-3 after the Rockets’ early six-point lead and held a 17-11 advantage with 6:24 remaining in the half. The Chippewas also matched Toledo’s six points to close the period and led 23-17 at the break. A pair of treys from Harman and Central Michigan forward Jalin Thomas to start the second half put the Rockets down twelve with 18:49 left in the contest. The closest Toledo came after than was 10 as the Chippewas cruised to the 17-point win.
“We keyed on them so tough the first half, and I thought we did a terrific job,” Cross said. “You cannot have slips like that. You can’t have slippage like that, and that was the key to the second half.”
The Rockets will look to get their first victory since Dec. 10 when they take on Eastern Michigan (13-12, 5-7) in Savage Arena at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The game will be the first of three-straight home contests for Toledo.
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