TOLEDO, Ohio \u2013 The Toledo men’s basketball team will open its Mid-American Conference season when it hosts Western Michigan (6-7, 0-1 MAC) on Tuesday, Dec. 30. Tip-off time from Savage Arena is set for 6:30 p.m. with streaming on ESPN+.<\/p>\n
The Rockets (6-6, 0-0 MAC) are coming off a 10-day break since their last action in a 100-67 home triumph over Lourdes University. UT produced one of its most efficient offensive performances of the season, shooting 58.3% from the field and assisting on 29-of-42 made baskets.<\/p>\n
Five Rockets scored in double figures against the Gray Wolves as Toledo controlled the game from start to finish. Leroy Blyden Jr.<\/a> led the way with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including three three-pointers. Sonny Wilson<\/a> orchestrated the offense with 17 points, a career-high eight assists, and zero turnovers in 28 minutes. Kyler Vanderjagt<\/a> added 13 points and knocked down three triples. Sean Craig<\/a> posted an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double, and Jaylan Ouwinga<\/a> provided a boost off the bench with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting.<\/p>\n The Rockets are led by the backcourt duo of Wilson (17.2 ppg) and Blyden (14.2 ppg) along with the frontcourt tandem of Craig (13.1 ppg) and Austin Parks<\/a> (11.0 ppg). Craig leads UT with 7.6 rpg, with Blyden setting the pace with 4.6 apg and 1.8 spg.<\/p>\n Western Michigan dropped an 88-71 home decision to Buffalo in its MAC opener on Dec. 20. The Broncos are 5-2 at home and 1-5 on the road.<\/p>\n Jalen Griffith leads WMU with 16.0 ppg, 4.7 apg, and 1.4 spg. Jayden Brewer is the only other Bronco\u00a0scoring in double digits with 13.5 ppg to go along with a team-best 7.2 rpg. DETAILING TONIGHT’S MATCHUP TALKING CONFERENCE OPENERS ROCKETS IN THE NCAA & MAC RANKINGS (thru games played Dec. 27) POSTGAME NOTES FROM THE ROCKETS’ WIN OVER LOURDES ON THE HORIZON
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\nGAME INFORMATION
\nDate: Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025.
\nTip-Off: 6:30 p.m.
\nLocation: Toledo, Ohio.
\nArena: Savage Arena (7,014).
\nStreaming: ESPN+. Mason Lowry will provide play-by-play with Rhett Boyd serving as analyst.
\nRadio: Rocket Radio Network. WSPD (1370 AM) in Toledo. Mark Beier will provide play-by-play for broadcast with Jay Lehman serving as analyst.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Toledo leads its all-time series vs. Western Michigan by a 95-63 margin and has won its last 14 matchups vs. the Broncos.
\n\u2022 The Rockets and Broncos will be facing each other twice this season for the first time since the 2021-22 campaign.
\n\u2022 Toledo’s last defeat at the hands of WMU was a 61-56 (OT) setback on Feb. 21, 2017.
\n\u2022 Sonny Wilson<\/a> paced the Rockets in last year’s 76-70 victory in Kalamazoo with 20 points.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Toledo has an all-time mark of 39-35 in MAC openers and is 21-10 in home lid-lifters.
\n\u2022 The Rockets are 8-5 vs. Western Michigan in MAC openers. The last time Toledo opened league play vs. the Broncos at home was an 83-56 win in Savage Arena on Dec. 29, 2021.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Toledo ranks first in the MAC and sixth in the nation with its 78.9 FT%.
\n\u2022 Toledo ranks second in the MAC with a 7.92 spg, third with a 1.58 assist\/turnover ratio, and fourth with a +2.9 turnover margin.
\n\u2022 Senior Sean Craig<\/a> ranks second in the MAC with 3.1 offensive rpg, fourth with 7.6 rpg, and fifth with an 87.9 FT%.
\n\u2022 Junior Sonny Wilson<\/a> ranks fourth with 17.2 ppg and tied for eighth with 4.1 apg.
\n\u2022 Freshman Leroy Blyden Jr.<\/a> is tied for fourth in the MAC with 1.8 spg, fifth with 4.6 apg, and seventh with a 44.1 three-point FG%.
\n\u2022 Junior Austin Parks<\/a> ranks sixth with a 60.2 FG%.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 The Rockets are averaging just 7.3 turnovers per game in their last three contests.
\n\u2022 Toledo shot 58.3% vs. the Gray Wolves and has shot 50 percent or better from the field in six of 12 games this season.
\n\u2022 The Rockets shot 88.9% from the free-throw line vs. Lourdes and have shot 75% or better from the charity stripe in nine of 12 contests.
\n\u2022 Sonny Wilson<\/a> scored 17 points and has a streak of scoring in double figures of 29 games dating back to last season.
\n\u2022 Leroy Blyden Jr.<\/a> scored a season-high 20 points for a third game this season.
\n\u2022 Sean Craig<\/a> registered his third double-double as a Rocket with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
\n\u2022 Kyler Vanderjagt<\/a> tallied 13 points and dished out a season-high five assists.
\n\u2022 Phoenix Glassnor<\/a> scored a season-high nine points.<\/p>\n
\nToledo will hit the road for a pair of league games at Central Michigan (4-9, 0-1 MAC) on Saturday, Jan. 3 and Northern Illinois (5-7, 1-0 MAC) on Tuesday, Jan. 6. The Rockets will then return home to host Miami (13-0, 1-0 MAC) on Friday, Jan. 9 and Ohio (6-7, 0-1 MAC) on Tuesday, Jan. 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOLEDO, Ohio \u2013 The Toledo men’s basketball team will open its Mid-American Conference season when it hosts Western…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-208109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}