Team win for UIC
For the first 20 minutes, the best player in the UIC Pavilion was the prodigal visitor who grew up just 1½ miles away near the corner of Roosevelt and Loomis.
After junior guard Tyrone Kent carried Toledo to a 7-point halftime lead, Illinois-Chicago responded with a teamwide effort that led to a 66-56 triumph before 3,235 on the West Side.
Junior guard Josh Mayo nailed two 3-pointers at the outset of the half to kick-start the hosts, then the rest of the Flames stepped forward during a defining 20-5 blitz.
UIC (7-4) won its fourth in a row for its best start since 2003-04, which doubles as the last season the Flames earned an NCAA Tournament bid.
Mayo led everyone with 22 points, but coach Jimmy Collins could point to strong contributions from all but one or two of the 10 guys he played.
"The good sign of a team that's coming together as one is it's able to pick up the energy level," said Collins, whose team didn't take its first lead until 13:03 remained.
"Our defense certainly picked it up for us the second half. I thought (senior guard) Karl White, because Kent's a very polished ballplayer, I thought Karl White got on him and did a really good job of slowing him down.
"And when you slow Kent down, you slow their team down."
Kent, a 6-foot-5 stud who helped Kansas' Sherron Collins lead Crane High School to the Class AA Elite Eight in 2005, delivered 13 of his 19 points in the first half en route to a 32-25 Toledo lead.
But Kent didn't score again until the 7:55 mark of the second half, by which time UIC had turned its 7-point deficit into a 9-point lead.
Mayo answered Kent's 3-pointer with his fourth 3-pointer of the half. The Rockets (2-9) got as close as 59-55 with 3:07 to go, but Mayo cashed both ends of a 1-and-1 and then dived for a scoop to put the game away.
Mayo, who's averaging 19.1 points, managed just 6 points and 5 shots in the first half as Toledo had three guys take turns hounding him.
"They got into me and made me drive more in the first half," Mayo said. "Then they missed a couple baskets, we got into transition, and I got a couple 3s. That got me started."
"We didn't switch aggressively like we did in the first half," Toledo coach Stan Joplin said. "They ran baseline and we ran into the screens and stopped. We didn't follow the game plan. That was it and then he got it rolling."
Freshman guard Robert Kreps added 12 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists off the bench for UIC, while starting center Scott VanderMeer and backup Jeremy Buttell combined for 13 points and 12 rebounds.