Chippewa Men Fall at Home to Toledo, 78-75

Saturday, January 3

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

3:00 PM

Central Michigan University

4-11,0-3MAC

Toledo

8-6,2-0MAC

Toledo

Central Mich.

Photo by: Madison Davidson '25 - @_mld.jpeg

1/3/2026 6:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Andy Sneddon

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Toledo outscored Central Michigan, 47-34, in the second half on Saturday in handing the Chippewas a 78-75 loss in a Mid-American Conference men's basketball game at McGuirk Arena.

The Chippewas slipped to 4-11, 0-3 MAC under first-year coach Andy Bronkema. The Rockets are 8-2, 2-0.

Phat Phat Brooks scored 17 points to lead four Chippewas in double figures.

"Close game, one-possession game like that, every play is a game-winning play," Bronkema said. "And our guys know that, and they gave everything they had.

"Next step is to close these things out because our guys are battling, man. You see the heart of a lion with this team and they're giving everything they've got. And we're one play away today."

Logan McIntire hit five 3-pointers en route to 15 points for the Chippewas. Jaxson Whitaker added 14 points and Nathan Claerbaut had 13.

Kyler VanderJagt, who played last season at CMU, scored a season-high 23 points to lead Toledo.

The Chippewas hit eight of their 19 3-point attempts after going 0 for 13 in an 80-64 loss to Ohio on Tuesday. Six of those triples came in the first half as CMU built a 41-31 halftime lead.

The difference came at the free throw line. Toledo made 26 of its 32 attempts from the charity stripe including 18 of 22 in the second half. CMU finished 9 of 12 from the line and went to the line just seven times in the final 20 minutes.

"It's just a lot to overcome," Bronkema said. "We have to look at what we can do to even that out."

CMU led for 75 percent of the game and never trailed in the second half until Sonny Wilson scored on a layup with 5:41 to play to give the Rockets a 66-64 lead.

The Chippewas never regained the lead but tied it at 69-all on a Brooks three-point play with 2:47 left.

Austin Parks converted an and-one 11 seconds later to put Toledo back in front, 72-69.

VanderJagt scored from inside with 1:13 to play to keep Toledo's lead at three, 76-73, and then Wilson hit two free throws with 6 seconds to play to make it 78-73.

The Chippewas go to Akron, the defending MAC regular season and tournament champion, on Jan. 6.

"We're getting guys rising to the top, guys coming to the surface and saying, 'Play me, I'm going to make a play,'" Bronkema said. "We're right here and we do like that. We're sharing the basketball; getting multiple guys in double figures is a big thing. I'm proud of these guys for pivoting and really being asked to so some things that we were hoping we didn't have to ask them to do. Not yet.

"They're got to come back. They've got to mature quickly. They're maturing, and it's just not quick enough right now on the scoreboard. But they're maturing, and I'm proud of them for that."