Still hanging on to its chances to grab the Mid-American Conference West Division Championship, Toledo is looking to stretch its winning streak to four as it hosts Western Michigan at 7 p.m. Feb. 25. The matchup will be the second game of a doubleheader at Savage Arena, with the UT women’s team taking the court first at 4:30 p.m.

The Rockets (14-14, 5-8 MAC) enter the weekend two games back of MAC West leader Eastern Michigan (12-16, 7-6) with three games remaining. Toledo has a chance to make up at least one game from the Eagles when the two teams square off in the season finale on March 3 in the Glass City.

Curtis Dennis, photo by Nick Kneer

Before they can think about the division lead, however, the Rockets have a tough test against Western Michigan (12-16, 6-7). A win over the Broncos would move Toledo into a tie alongside WMU for second place in the division.

Both teams are entering this weekend’s matchup on opposite streaks. The Rockets have won three straight and four of their last five. Western Michigan, however, has lost five of its last seven and has struggled this season, going 2-11 on the road.

Juice Brown has led the Rockets as of late, following up his MAC Player of the Week award by scoring a career-high 29 points against Central Michigan. The freshman point guard is scoring 12.1 points with five assists per contest.

Toledo also features MAC Player of the Year candidate Rian Pearson, who is second in the MAC in scoring (16.4), third in rebounds (8.3) and seventh in steals (1.6). Junior guard Curtis Dennis is also scoring in double figures coming off the bench at 12.8 points per game.

Western Michigan, the preseason MAC West favorites, have four players scoring over 11 points per game led by Demetrius Ward (12 ppg) and Matt Stainbrook (11.9). The Broncos won the first meeting between the two schools 74-52 in Kalamazoo on Jan. 14.

Tags: Curtis Dennis, Juice Brown, Mid-American Conference, rian pearson, Rockets basketball, Western Michigan, Zach Davis

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 25th, 2012 at 1:58 am and is filed under Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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