Following another heartbreaking loss, Toledo hits the road on its way to Muncie to take on Ball State at 7 p.m. Feb. 15.

Rian Pearson, photo by Nick Kneer

The Rockets (11-14, 3-8 Mid-American Conference) couldn’t hold off archrival Bowling Green on the road in its last game, just missing out on going 3-3 against the MAC East. As a whole, the MAC West won just six combined games against the East out of 36 matchups.

The narrow defeat at BG was nothing new for the Rockets, who are 2-7 on the season in games decided by three points or less. Toledo has also led or been tied in the final 2:32 in seven of its 12 losses this season.

Among the close losses this season is a 70-68 game against Ball State (12-11, 4-7 MAC) on Jan. 10 at Savage Arena. After UT held a 64-60 lead with just under two minutes remaining, the Cardinals rallied to grab a 68-66 advantage with 27.5 seconds left. Toledo’s Reese Holliday tied the game with six seconds remaining but the Rockets allowed Ball State to go the length of the court on the inbounds pass, culminating with a Jerrod Jones lay-in with 0.6 seconds left for the win.

Toledo has appeared much improved as of late thanks to the play of sophomore guard Rian Pearson, who has earned MAC West Division Player of the Week honors the last three weeks. Pearson is the only player in the MAC in the top 10 in points (17.2), rebounds (8.4) and steals (1.7) and ranks fourth in the nation in rebounds among guards.

Pearson, however, won’t be the only MAC Player of the Year candidate on the floor. Jones ranks third in the league in scoring (16.3) and second in rebounding (8.5) and will be looking to top the Rockets once again.

Tags: Ball State, Mid-American Conference, rian pearson, Rockets basketball, Zach Davis

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Rocket Basketball, Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.