Toledo moves to 4-1 with win over UIC

Written by Zach Davis | | zdavis@toledofreepress.com

Rian Pearson

The UT men’s basketball team has already matched its win total from both 2009 and 2010 — and it did it in just five games.

The Rockets (4-1) jumped out to an early 22-5 lead in their home opener and rolled to an 82-67 victory over Illinois-Chicago (1-3).

“It’s expected,” UT Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “We are disappointed we are not 5-0. We thought we left one out there against Texas State. Had it not been our first game I think we would have won that game.”

“It’s very important being the first home win for the fans,” sophomore guard Rian Pearson said. “It will give them a little taste for the rest of the season. We are just trying to keep winning and stack our wins before conference play comes around.”

Toledo put a lot of pressure on themselves to start the season fast after two consecutive 4-28 seasons, hoping to show their fans early that this will be a different season than those of recently memory.

“The start of our season was way more important than any time I have been a head coach and it’s because of the perception,” Kowalczyk said. “I think people are genuinely excited about the future of our program but still cautiously excited — and rightfully so. I think this team has a chance to be good.”

Pearson had a game-high 27 points for UT on 10-of-16 shooting and made 6-of-12 free throws. The Wisconsin-Green Bay transfer is averaging a team-best 19.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.

“Rian is playing at a high level at both ends,” Kowalczyk said. “His shot selection, energy and enthusiasm has been very good and that has been infectious and contagious throughout our team. If he makes his foul shots he could have gone for 40 tonight but he will work on that.”

Also scoring in double figures for UT was point guard Julius “Juice” Brown who had 17 with four assists. Freshman point guard Ryan Majerle and junior forward Matt Smith had nine and eight points, respectively.

Leading the way for UIC was former Rocket Hayden Humes who transferred at the end of last season. Humes, who averaged just 2 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19.3 minutes this season, had his best game of the year recording 10 points and 11 rebounds in 30 minutes of action.

Delino Dear

The Rockets dominated the first half, taking a 45-25 advantage to the break. The team held UIC to just 29 percent shooting (10 of 34) while committing just four turnovers in the first half.

The second half, however, was a different story. UIC outscored Toledo 42-37 shooting 44 percent from the field as the Rockets committed 10 turnovers.

“I really liked how we started out the first 10 minutes of that game,” Kowalczyk said. “I felt we had tremendous intensity and ball pressure. The energy in the first half was good but then I thought our ability to handle success was very poor. Up 20 and we acted like a team that is the fifth youngest team in the country. We got giddy instead of getting serious and getting down to business.”

An example of the team showing its youth appeared at one point late in the first half when Brown bypassed an open layup trying to throw an alley-oop off the backboard to Pearson. The attempt was unsuccessful and UT lost possession of the ball.

“We talked about it,” Kowalczyk said. “Juice Brown is a very good basketball player and a tremendous person — and it won’t happen again.”

The Rockets will continue their growth as they host UNC-Wilmington (0-4) at Savage Arena at 7 p.m.

Toledo has already matched its win total from both 2009 and 2010 — and it did it in just five games.