Toledo women bring home tourney trophy from N.M.

11/30/2009

ALBUQUERQUE - The Toledo women claimed their fourth tourney title in school history with a 62-56 victory over New Mexico in Saturday's championship game of the Holiday Inn & Suites Express Midtown Thanksgiving Tournament before 7,016 fans. With the win, the Rockets improve to 5-2 on the season.

"This is a tremendous win for our program against a very talented New Mexico team," coach Tricia Cullop said. "I thought we played with a lot of focus. We played a strong game against a strong team. I'm just so very proud of my team's effort."

Junior Jessica Williams led the Rocketswith 14 points, including 12 in the second half, to collect tourney MVP honors. Joining Williams in double figures was senior Tanika Mays with 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds to also earn all-tourney recognition. Sophomore Naama Shafir added 13 points and five assists, while junior Melissa Goodall had 10 points, five boards and two steals.

"Jessica has made tremendous improvement since the UTEP game," Cullop said.

Cullop added, "Tanika was also a force to be reckoned with down low offensively and she also did a great job checking out defensively."

The Rockets shot 36.2 percent (21-of-58) from the field, including 35 percent (7-of-20) from three-point range, and 81.3 percent (13-of-16) of their free throws to hand the Lobos their fourth home loss over the last two seasons.

UT finished with a 13-3 edge at the free-throw line and turned the ball over 11 times compared to 13 assists.

The Rockets return to action on Dec. 9 when they host Dayton.