Toledo's 32 From the Free-Throw Beats Oakland Women's Basketball 75-63

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Studio: Logan Pizzurro

The Oakland Golden Grizzlies fall to the Toledo Rockets at home at the OU Credit Union O’Rena on Sunday, December 17th. The final score was 78-65. 

Oakland came into this game off a 79-76 nail-biter victory against Central Michigan, in which they had to come from behind to steal one from the visiting Chippewas.

The Grizzlies’ second-half offense was spearheaded by MSU transfer Maddy Skorupski with a career-high 19 points and was supported by a consistent performance from Linda van Schaik and an off-the-bench facilitator job by Kennedie Montue.

The Rockets came into this game red-hot, proudly displaying a four-game win streak. Their relentless paint defense allowed them to hold Michigan and Loyola Maryland to a combined 81 points. 

A buzzer error resulting in Oakland being awarded a pregame technical foul, so Sophia Wiard started the scoring 1-0. Oakland then overcame a 5-0 deficit to lead the Rockets 16-7 with 4:51 to go in the first quarter.

Toledo responded with 6 unanswered points, and began exposing the cracks in Oakland’s aggressive press defense, but Kennedie Montue’s two free throws gave Oakland a five-point cushion going into the second quarter. 

Oakland came out swinging in the second quarter, but foul trouble gave the Rockets easy points at the line. Oakland continued to match Toledo’s energy, but they were punished for their aggressiveness with a barrage of foul calls leading Toledo to use free throws as their personal points ATM.

Oakland went into the locker room down only one, and seemed to hold their heads high with a gutsy first-half performance against one of the best defenses in college basketball.

Midway through the third quarter, however, Toledo opened the floodgates with an 8-0 run that created space between themselves and the Golden Grizzlies. More foul trouble caused Oakland to get behind even more, and efforts on offense couldn’t pay enough dividends to create points. Toledo led by 11 at the end of the third.

In the fourth quarter, Oakland changed defensive tactics to avoid Toledo going to the line, but the Rockets took advantage of Oakland’s soft closeouts and blown assignments to bury long-range 2’s and three-pointers. A valiant late-game effort by Brooke Quarles-Daniels, who flashed some of the skills that made her Horizon League Freshman of the Year, was not enough to overcome Oakland’s lapses on defense. 

This game was notable for the Toledo Rockets going 32 for a whopping 38 from the free throw line. Their ability to draw fouls early in the game gave them the cushion needed to beat Oakland. However, life for the Rockets is about to get tricky, as their next matchup is against Kara Lawson’s Duke Blue Devils on December 20th.

Meanwhile, Oakland will be trying to break the losing spell they are on with another home stand against the Miami Redhawks. Catch the action right here on wxou.org/live!