Rockets streaking with 3rd win in a row

Toledo guard Julius Brown, who scored 29 points, takes a shot against Central Michigan's Austin McBroom. The freshman led the Rockets to their third win in a row and second straight in the MAC West. THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Things are changing with the University of Toledo men's basketball team, and those changes go beyond the obvious.

Yes, the Rockets are putting together a nice little winning streak, which grew to three Wednesday in a 72-67 triumph at home over Central Michigan. It's subtle changes, ones that aren't apparent to everyone, that are making the difference in the larger sense.

Specifically, the Rockets are figuring out how to grind away when things aren't going well, something that was absent early in the Mid-American Conference season, but was sorely needed on Wednesday against a Chippewas squad that played far better than its record -- 8-19, 3-10 -- would indicate. Moreover, UT is receiving surprising leadership from a shy freshman, one who is beginning to get in teammates faces after not saying a peep early in the season.

These transformations manifested Wednesday in a revenge win, UT's second -- and counting? -- against the Mid-American Conference West. Julius Brown, the quiet freshman point guard, dropped 29 points to lead the cause on a night that UT's best player, Rian Pearson, was in a funk after registering an early technical foul.

PHOTO GALLERY: Central Michigan vs. Toledo

With the win, UT (14-14, 5-8) improves to .500 for the first time since Jan. 18, and coach Tod Kowalczyk moves to 154-154 in his head coaching career. More importantly, the Rockets maintained their ground in the West division and can jump into a second-place tie with Western Michigan with a win over the Broncos on Saturday at Savage Arena.

UT trails leader Eastern Michigan by two games.

"I think we're turning the corner in the fact we can win ugly," Kowalczyk said. "That was something we really struggled with early in the year. When we didn't play particularly well, we didn't know how to grind out games and grind out wins."

Key was a 7-0 run in the second half, started by a Brown free throw and ended by a transition lay up from Brown that put the Rockets in front by 11 -- the largest lead by either team. Somewhere in there, Matt Smith made a beautiful left-handed put back on a Pearson miss.

CMU fired back quickly, twice cutting the deficit to two on baseline jumpers by skillful sophomore guard Trey Zeigler.

The Chippewas never managed to grasp the lead, in part because of poor free-throw shooting, and fell for the 11th time in 12 games.

"We know we didn't play to the best of our ability, but we got the win," said Brown, who matched his season high in points.

Sixth man Curtis Dennis poured in 18 points, the final two coming on a trip to the free-throw line with 8:04 to go that put UT in front 57-52. Pearson, who has been in a rut since posting four straight 20-point games against the East, scored 11 points and seemed to lose his focus after picking up a technical foul early when he slapped his hands together while staring at an official he thought should have called a foul on his dunk attempt.

Kowalczyk, who often discourages his players from reacting to calls, said Pearson "deserved that technical foul."

Brown, who earned MAC West player of the week honors after two solid showings in road wins at Ball State and at Sam Houston State, missed just one field goal attempt all night, as his pull up jumper rarely touched anything but the net.

He made two free throws with 29 seconds left to stretch the lead to four, and Zeigler, who finished with 33 points, couldn't match him at the other end, making 1 of 2.

Sealing the win was a free throw by Smith with 21 seconds left followed by a missed 3 by CMU's Austin Keel.

Now it's on to Western, a game in which UT hopes to avenge a third loss to a West foe. The Broncos ripped UT, 74-52, on Jan. 14 in Kalamazoo.

"This game is personal," Dennis said. "We owe them big. We went up there and got blown out. They punked us, and we felt that when we left and we're not going to let that happen."

Contact Ryan Autullo at: rautullo@theblade.com, 419-724-6160 or on Twitter @RyanAutullo.