| Coming off of their emotional win over Kentucky, the Cards came out and laid the hammer down on Toledo, even after leading scorer Francisco Garcia was injured in the first half with a hyperextended knee. Garcia is not expected to miss any practice or games. U of L scored 20 points off of 12 first half Toledo turnovers, but the Rockets' shooting kept them in the game. U of L made only one of its first six shots, but then made six straight to go up 19-7. Garcia had two assists to help put U of L up 26-11. A Luke Whitehead dunk put the Cards up 35-17, but six straight Toledo points pulled the Rockets within 12. U of L was up 39-23 when Garcia injured his knee; he stayed in the game three more minutes before going to the locker room. A 10-3 Cardinal spurt made the score 45-26, but the Cards led only 48-34 at halftime before Toledo cut the Cardinal lead to 10 early in the second half. |
| Toledo missed 15 of its first 21 shots in the second half, though, with the Cards making 12 of their first 16 off of nine assists. At one point, U of L made eight shots in a row in an 18-4 run that pretty much iced the game. That run was fueled by two three-pointers and four free throws from Nate Daniels, who had a career-high 18 points, and two threes from Taquan Dean, who scored 14. Daniels had four three-pointers on the night in scoring his 18 points in only 13 minutes of action, while Dean was 4-8 from behind the arc. When Garcia returned to the bench at the 16-minute mark, the Cards were up 59-40. Midway through the final period, the Cards had built an insurmountable 78-46 lead. U of L held Toledo to only 29% shooting in the second half, and for the game had a 41-28 edge on the glass. Meanwhile, the Cards were 9-16 from three-point range in the second half; Toledo was only 2-11. The Cards finished on the night shooting 52.6% from the field, even though they missed several shots in garbage time at the end. Whitehead led U of L with 19 points and also had nine rebounds, while Larry O'Bannon pitched in 11. Otis George came off his performance against UK to score 10 points and pull down seven rebounds. For the game, U of L scored 34 points off of 20 Toledo turnovers. U of L's bench accounted for 41 of the Cardinals' points. |
