The Toledo Rockets women's basketball team will be at Savage Arena again on Thursday.
This time, the Rockets will not be playing any games. They're going to hold a community celebration on their WNIT championship on Saturday, the first postseason title in school history.
Toledo fans will get to listen to fans and players talk about their historic run to the WNIT title. The Rockets won all six WNIT games at Savage Arena, including a 76-68 win over USC in the championship game on Saturday.
When the Rockets opened their season on Nov. 12 at home against St. Francis (Pa.) in opening-round Preseason WNIT game, only 845 people showed up.
When Toledo opened its Postseason WNIT tournament play on March 16 with a 58-55 win over Delaware, a total of 1,245 people were in attendance.
Suddenly, as Toledo kept winning, more fans started showing up to Savage Arena. The Rockets had a total of 25,669 fans in their six WNIT games at home, including a school-record 7,301 in Saturday's championship game with USC.
Toledo also had wins over Auburn, Alabama, Syracuse and Charlotte in the tournament. With the victory over USC, the Rockets prevented the Pac-10 (it will become the Pac-12 next year) from winning a WNIT title for the second year in a row. California won it last year, but was eliminated in the second round this year.
Overall, Toledo turned in a brilliant home season, going 19-1 and averaging 3,078 fans a game at Savage Arena. Missouri State handed the Rockets' only home loss on Nov. 20.
Melissa Goodall and Jessica Williams are Toledo's only seniors. They combined to score 15 points against the USC.
But the top player for Toledo was junior Naama Shafir. The guard from Israel scored a game-high 40 points and finished as the team's leading scorer at 15.3 points per game.
Toledo finished its season at 29-8. The Rockets' NCAA tournament hopes were diminished on March 11, when they lost to Eastern Michigan in the Mid-American Conference semifinals.
Four months ago, Toledo was eliminated by eventual champion Purdue in the Preseason WNIT quarterfinals. On Saturday, the Rockets made sure they wouldn't leave Savage Arena empty-handed.
"Even though we would have loved to be part of the NCAA Tournament, this may have been the best thing to ever happen to our program," Toledo coach Tricia Cullop told the Toledo Independent Collegian on Monday. "We got to be part of a national tournament and our fans got to enjoy all of this with us."
On Thursday, the Toledo fans will get to celebrate the WNIT title with the players and coaches one final time.
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