Flynn Pyykkonen

TOLEDO, OH - Freshman Flynn Pyykkonen (Clarkston, MI/Birmingham Marian) had a breakout game with a career-high 22 points off the bench, but the Toledo Rockets built a 16-point first-half lead en route to an easy 81-60 win over the University at Buffalo women's basketball team tonight in front of 2,233 fans in Savage Hall. The win improved Toledo's record to 9-9 overall and 5-2 in the Mid-American Conference while Buffalo fell to 3-14 overall and 1-5 in the MAC.

Danielle Bishop hit back-to-back three-pointers to start an 18-4 Toledo run that gave the Rockets a 16-point lead, 22-6, and essentially determined the outcome of the game with 7:32 to play in the first half. The run ended on a three-pointer by Crystal Young as the shot clock expired and also included a three by Aaron Richmond. The Rockets were 7-for-10 from three-point range in the first half and 8-for-14 for the game while Buffalo shot just 3-for-12 from behind the arc in the first half and 7-for-18 in the game.

The Rockets led by as many as 19 in the first half, 36-17, before a late pair of Buffalo three-pointers cut the Bulls' deficit to 16 at the break, 39-23. Toledo continued to pound away in the second half, led by Karin Hoogendam who scored 14 of her game-high 23 points in the final 20 minutes of play. Toledo led by as many as 26 points down the stretch leading to the 81-60 final.

Toledo shot 48.1 percent from the floor (25-for-52) compared to the Bulls' 38.5 percent (20-for-52), and the Rockets collected 23 points at the free throw line. Toledo scored 25 points off of Buffalo's 21 turnovers while the Bulls scored 14 points off of Toledo's 12 turnovers. The Bulls outrebounded the Rockets by a 35-31 margin in the game.

"Flynn obviously had a great game for us, and it was nice to see someone come off the bench and put points on the board like she did tonight," said Buffalo head coach Cheryl Dozier. "Beyond that, we turned the ball over way too much and allowed Toledo to hurt us with the three. Saturday's another game, though, and we have to turn our focus to Ohio now."

The Buffalo loss overshadowed a great effort from Pyykkonen who finished the game 9-for-13 from the floor, including 2-for-4 from three-point range, and scored 15 of her team-high 22 points in the second half. In addition to Pyykkonen, senior Allison Bennett (Springfield, OH/Kenton Ridge) and sophomore Belinda Gibb (Denmark, Western Australia/Willetton) also reached double figures in scoring with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while Bennett also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.

In addition to Hoogendam's 23 points, Bishop finished with 17, including three three-pointers, while Young chipped in 11 points and Kristi Zeller added 10 points off the bench.

The Bulls travel to Ohio next for a 1 pm tip on Saturday, January 29.