The Falcon women’s basketball team fell to the Toledo Rockets 77-67 Saturday afternoon, and the team suffered their third straight loss this season.
“It’s a great women’s basketball game, but with that said, this one hurts a little bit more,” Falcons head coach Jennifer Roos said. “The intensity from the beginning of the tip to the first few minutes, you can’t dig yourself a hole like that in a rivalry game and expect good things to happen.”
The game started off with Toledo jumping out to the lead in the first quarter as they went up 29-15 early, but the Falcons were able to turn it around significantly in the second. They were able to hold Toledo to just eight points, and the Falcons put up 18 to trim the Toledo lead down to just 37-33 going into halftime.
“I thought we anticipated being able to score off the bounce,” Roos said. “We were trying to run a couple of their players with some ball screen action, but they were high hedging, so I thought we’d split some defensive coverages. But, we were able to turn the corner and get them going on their heels because they didn’t want to foul.”
The teams mainly held even in the third quarter, with the Falcons only able to close the gap by one point. Toledo continued to lead 49-46 by the end of the quarter, but the Falcons were able to grab their first lead of the game in the third as the teams traded the lead. However, in the fourth quarter, Toledo was able to pull away and take the lead for good with a 28 point performance from the offense, and while the Falcons had a strong effort on offense as well, scoring 21 points in the fourth, it would not be enough, as Toledo held on to take the 77-67 victory.
“When you go down by double digits early on, you have to spend so much energy trying to claw back,” Roos said. “We take the lead (in the third) and then when we exhale. They took that same momentum and flipped it.”
The team will next play Wednesday night on the road against the Kent State Golden Flashes, who the team defeated 60-50 in their previous matchup on Jan. 17.
“We just played them three games ago,” Roos said. “We’ve got to do a good job, just like we did then, of containing (Jordan) Korinek. We’ve got to do a good job against Megan Carter, who can score off the bounce, but that’s a veteran team with McKenna Stevens as a redshirt senior, and they’ve got a lot of experience and, they’re going to be hungry for payback.”
