TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo men's basketball team registered a statement win on Friday night with a 93-85 victory over Conference USA favorite UAB in the Barstool Sports Invitational. The contest was played at the Wells Fargo Center, home of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers.

"That was a heck of a win against a really, really good team and a tremendously coached team," Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "I said from the beginning that this game could have March ramifications. We hope we have a season like that. We hope UAB has a season like that. I don't think it's a negative for the loser, but certainly the winner can build off this." 
 
The Rockets' veteran trio of junior RayJ Dennis, senior Setric Millner Jr. and senior JT Shumate combined for 64 points in the victory. Dennis tied his career high for a second-straight game with 23 points and dished out a team-high seven assists, while Millner and Shumate tallied 21 and 20 points, respectively. Shumate was named Barstool's Pizza Hut Game MVP.

"That was a great atmosphere," Dennis said. "Coach mentioned to us at halftime that this is what it's like in March when we go to Cleveland and play in an NBA arena. It was a big game." 

Junior Tyler Cochran also scored in double digits, finishing with 13 points along with a team-high seven rebounds.

Cochran also grabbed a team-high four steals to spearhead a Rockets' defensive effort that forced UAB into 22 turnovers and limited the Blazers to a 35.3 shooting mark in the second half.

"Tyler just makes big plays," Kowalczyk said. "When things got tight a little bit I just thought he got baskets. He had four steals and all of them felt like they were in the middle of a UAB run. Those were four-point swings." 

Toledo trailed by a 46-39 margin at halftime after falling behind by as many as 11 points less than seven minutes into the contest.

Jordan 'Jelly' Walker paced UAB offensively with 25 points but was 9-of-23 from the field.

Toledo is back in action on Wednesday, Nov. 16 when it hosts Horizon League foe Oakland (1-1). Tip-off time in Savage Arena is set for 7:00 p.m.

ROCHESTER, Mich. - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball program picked up an 87-82 victory over Oakland on Friday night (Nov. 11) to move to 2-0 on the season for the first time since 2014-15. The Falcons carried a six-point lead into halftime, but Oakland fought back to reclaim the lead in the second half. BGSU erased a late deficit by closing out the game with a 6-0 run to clinch the win.

On the court, the Orange and Brown were led by Leon Ayers III for the second straight game. Ayers tallied a career-high 26 points for the Falcons, putting up 18 in the first half alone. Chandler Turner took over in the second half, recording his first career double-double with 16 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. Ayers and Turner were joined in the double-digit scoring by Kaden Metheny (15) with five triples, Samari Curtis (12) and Rashaun Agee (12).