Toledo women’s basketball upset UMass in the quarterfinal round of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament, defeating the Minutewomen 67-56 Wednesday night at Rocket Arena in Cleveland.
Toledo started the game on fire, jumping out to an early 14-2 lead, ending the first quarter ahead 21-12 and leading by double digits, 36-24, at halftime.
“Coach Ginny told us to punch first, so that’s what we did,” Toledo graduate student guard Patricia Anumgba said.
UMass led for just 21 seconds of the game, playing an unsuccessful game of catch-up the entire contest, with Toledo building its lead up to as many as 15 points.
“Credit to Toledo, they really took the fight to us early in the game, and we dug ourselves a big hole,” UMass head coach Mike Leflar said.
UMass shot just 32.8% from the field, while Toledo shot 46.3% from the floor and 40% from deep.
“We knew this was going to be a hard one. We knew we were going to need our defense to travel, which is always really, really important in a conference tournament game,” Toledo head coach Ginny Boggess said. “You’re playing in a new environment, a new arena. Our defense has showed up for us all year, and it definitely showed up tonight.”
The Minutewomen made just one 3-pointer, their fewest this season, shooting 1-for-14 from beyond the arc.
“Coach Geoff (Lanier), he was very adamant on ball pressure, you know, getting our hands up, making sure the shooters don’t get open shots, and also ball pressure so that we could interrupt their passes when they’re trying to pass it into the post players,” Anumgba said.
Meanwhile, the shorthanded and size-limited Rockets—without 6-foot-1 junior guard Alexa Hocevar and 5-foot-11 sophomore guard Faith Fedd-Robinson—dominated on the glass, outrebounding UMass 46 to 31.
“When we all play together at the same time, that we’re unstoppable,” graduate student guard Patricia Anumgba said.
Four Rockets scored in double-digits, with Anumgba leading the Midnight Blue and Gold with a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double. Junior guards Kendall Carruthers and Ella Weaver each scored 16 points, while sophomore forward Miriam Diala added 10.
However, UMass never quit, going on a 10-2 run to close out the third quarter, trailing 44-38.
The Minutewomen parlayed that momentum into a 16-2 run across a span of just over eight minutes, tying the game at 44 apiece with six-and-a-half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
UMass sophomore guard Yahmani McKayle led the comeback effort, scoring 15 of her game-high 24 points in the second half.
“In the season, I’ve had games like that, where I start off slow, I don’t see the ball go in and I might get frustrated. But I think throughout the season, I’ve learned to grow. I’ve grown into learning just keep shooting,” McKayle said.
However, the Rockets never lost the lead and finished the game on a 13-5 run, securing a trip to the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament for the fifth straight season.
Toledo, the sixth seed, will face the top-seeded Ball State Cardinals in the second semifinal game Friday, with tip-off scheduled for 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. Falcon Media Sports Network’s Adam Duffin and Foster Roesti will have the radio call on Falcon Radio, streaming on bgfalconmedia.com.
