BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — In round one of the Battle of I-75, Toledo women's basketball beat Bowling Green 71-67, on Saturday.
The Rockets used a quick start to take a 12 point lead into halftime and never trailed against the Falcons.
Toledo was led by Sophia Wiard who scored a team-high 20 points while playing all 40 minutes. Quinesha Lockett added 13 points. Sammi Mikonowicz and Jessica Cook each scored 10.
BGSU made their push in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to five, but the Rockets would hang on late to improve to 9-1 in the Mid-American Conference.
Freshman Amy Velasco led Bowling Green with a career-high 21 points and Ottawa-Glandorf grad Kadie Hempfling finished with 13.
The Falcons drop to 9-8 overall and 4-4 in the MAC.
"A win on the road is always tough, especially when you're playing a rival like that," said Wiard. "It just felt good after the two losses we took last year, we knew we wanted to get them back."
"I knew it was coming, there would be a wave," said Toledo head coach Tricia Cullop. "But I'm just really proud of our kids. Those are two great teams and it's a great rivalry."
"We got down and we tried to claw our way back," said Hempfling. "We fought really hard, we played hard, but when you get down by that much in the first half, it's just so hard against a great team like Toledo to come back."
"I thought our first half was the difference in the game. We just didn't have a really good start," said Bowling Green head coach Robyn Fralick. "I thought we called and fought our way back, giving ourselves some chances near the end, but a little bit too little too late."
The Rockets are back home on Wednesday, Feb. 2 to take on Miami (OH). The Falcons are on the road the same night against Northern Illinois.