Womens Basketball Advances to Championship Game

The University of Toledo women's basketball team jumped out to a 37-16 halftime lead Thursday night as they cruised to a 60-50 victory over Evansville in their first game of the Toledo Invite. The Rockets will face Prairie View A&M in the championship game Friday night. Prairie View A&M upset Hampton 49-42 in the opening game.

Inma Zanoguera and Naama Shafir each scored 12 points to pace the Rockets in front of a home crowd of 3,709 fans. Naama recorded a double-double by adding 10 assists to her 12 points.

Andoa Dortch added 9 points, while Brianna Jones and Yolanda Richardson each added 8 points for Toledo. Kyle Baumgartner recorded 5 points, and Janelle Reed-Lewis and Riley McCormick each scored 3 points.

Toledo held Evansville to just a 17.4% shooting percentage in the first half, while the Rockets shot 41.2% from the floor in the opening half.

Toledo scored the first 9 points of the game and led 29-9 with 5:18 left in the first half. The Rockets maintained at least a double digit lead throughout the game. The Rockets led 60-40 with 4:15 to play in the game. Evansville closed the game with a 10-0 run to make the game look much closer than it actually was.

Toledo improved to 9-1 on the season and will go after win #10 Friday night in the championship game of the inaugural Toledo Invite.