All 4 top seeds won. BG, Ball State, and Kent all won easily. The 1 vs 8 game was just as good as it gets. Buffalo led most of the game, but Toledo briefly took the lead several times. It was always close. With 35 seconds to go UB was up 1 and had the ball out of bounds with 30 second on the shot clock. Toledo fouled on the catch 4 straight times to get to the bonus and Buffalo hit both to go up 3 with still 25 seconds to go.UT advanced the ball with a TO, then worked for an open 3. With 13 seconds to go UB made a mistake, as two girls ran at MAC POY Quinesha Lockett and then both raced back to their man and left her open and she hit the 3 to tie the score. Buffalo then missed a step back 3 at the buzzer. In OT Jada Jansen of UT hit 2 free throws to give Toledo a 1 point lead. UB. Then got 3 chances to win and failed on all 3. The best chance was a point blank layup with a half second left which was blocked for a jump ball. So Toledo dodged the big upset and won 75 to 74.
Other hilights included seeing Jermaine Henderson on the humungatron bouncing his kid on his knee while watching the Akron women play ( his Cleveland State team lost by 2 points Tuesday night in the Horizon League championship). And of course, walking laps after the first game, we ran into David Saylor and Coach Hendrix and talked briefly, talking only about the first game and about the men’‘s game tomorrow.