Hot Rockets bomb Va. Commonwealth

12/10/2006

Toledo put it all together last night at Savage Hall, hitting on all cylinders in a 76-50 victory over Virginia Commonwealth.

"We really jumped up on them," said UT coach Mark Ehlen, whose squad suffered a 71-50 loss at VCU last season. "They smacked us at their place last year so it was good to return the favor. This was a real good team win."

The Rockets banked on ballanced scoring, with four players hitting double figures.

Senior Danielle Bishop led the way with 17 points, followed by Diana Reindl with 16, Nacole Stocks with 15 and Ta'Yani Clark with 13.

"I thought for the first time this year Danielle was really looking to score and being aggressive offensively," Ehlen said.

Michelle Cosel scored 11 for Virginia Commonwealth.

Toledo led the entire way, with its biggest lead at 76-48 with 29 seconds to play in the second half. The Rockets built up a 43-21 lead at halftime.

In addition to her 6-of-10 shooting from the field, Reindl pulled down eight rebounds for UT.

Stocks played 39 minutes, supplementing her scoring with five rebounds, seven assists and four steals.

"I thought Nacole played an outstanding game running our team and taking good care of the basketball.," Ehlen said. "Four steals, seven assists, 15 points, 5-of-6 from the free throw line. That's a good line. She was assertive. She was aggressive. I thought she controlled the game.

The Rockets shot 56.3 percent (18-of-32) from the field in the opening 20 minutes, including 57.1 percent (4-of-7) from 3-point range.

"You saw the emergence of our junior college players tonight. This was Ta'Yani's second game in double figures. She's starting to shoot it well. Hopefully this will give us confidence as we continue to grow as a team."

The Rams were held to 29.3 percent shooting from the field (17-of-58), including 16.7 percent (2-of-12) from beyond the arc, to suffer their third-straight loss.