
Toledo (14-9, 5-5 MAC) also registered a season-best 63.2 percent from three point range, knocking down 12-of-19 attempts behind the arc, in addition to an impressive 88.9 percent (16-of-18) from the charity stripe.
Senior center Nathan Boothe tallied a game-high 26 points and . . .
Senior guard Galal Cancel paced Kent State (15-8, 6-4 MAC) with a career-high 19 points, while junior forward Jimmy Hall scored 16 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
Kent State shot 49.1 percent from the field after the Rockets limited the Golden Flashes to a 39.3 mark in the first half. KSU was 8-of-18 (44.4 percent) from three-point range and just 3-of-4 from the free-throw line.
Both teams started slowly on the offensive end as Kent State jumped out to a 13-8 lead with 11:09 to play in the first half. Williams then sparked a 7-2 run with a pair of baskets to put the Rockets ahead for good, 19-17, just under eight minutes before halftime.
Toledo asserted itself defensively and held KSU scoreless over the next four minutes to take a 26-17 lead. Freshman guard Jaelan Sanford hit a deep trey 30 seconds before halftime for an eight-point advantage, but Hall answered with a trey to cut UT’s margin to 31-26 heading into the locker room.
The Rockets hit seven straight shots to open the second stanza to expand their lead to 49-36 with 15:09 remaining. Kent State cut Toledo’s lead to 10 points twice in the final five minutes, but that was as close the Golden Flashes could come.
NEXT:
Toledo at Buffalo (Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET)
Northern Illinois at Kent State (Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET)