FINDLAY — For a half on Sunday afternoon, the University of Findlay men’s basketball team had a Division I visitor on the ropes. The Oilers led Toledo by nine at halftime and by as many as 11 early in the second half, but the Rockets’ size and shooting took over from there, and Toledo left the Croy Physical Education Center with an 88-78 exhibition win to open both teams’ 2026-27 campaigns.
The game has become an early-season tradition in Northwest Ohio: Sunday marked the seventh time in ten years that the Mid-American Conference Rockets have made the trip down Interstate 75 to face the Division II Oilers in Findlay. Exhibitions between the programs give Findlay a measuring stick against a bigger, deeper roster, and for most of the afternoon the Oilers measured up.
Findlay closed the first half on a 12-2 run to take a 44-35 lead into the locker room, shooting 45 percent from the field and hitting six three-pointers before the break. The Oilers pushed the margin to 11 points shortly after halftime, the largest lead either team would hold in the game, and the home crowd had genuine reason to believe an upset was brewing.
Toledo answered with a 14-point scoring run that flipped the game, and the Rockets shot 63 percent from the field in the second half. The decisive gap came inside: Toledo scored 62 of its 88 points in the paint, compared with 34 for Findlay, wearing down the smaller Oilers frontcourt over the final twenty minutes. Toledo finished at 56 percent shooting for the game.
Junior Alex Kendall led Findlay with 23 points, adding seven rebounds, two steals and two assists in a performance that bodes well for the Oilers’ season. Senior Anthony Johnson scored ten points, and senior Jake Bishop added nine points while leading the team with eight rebounds. Findlay shot 40 percent overall and forced 17 Toledo turnovers, two more than it committed, and it led the game in free-throw percentage, time with the lead and second-chance points — small consolation, but evidence of how long the Oilers controlled the afternoon.
Exhibitions do not count in the standings, and both coaching staffs treated the afternoon as a dress rehearsal, rotating lineups and testing combinations. For Toledo, the comeback offered a first look at how its roster responds on the road when a game goes sideways. For Findlay, the takeaway was simpler: for thirty minutes, a Division II team dictated terms to a MAC opponent.
Findlay now turns to the games that count. The Oilers officially open their season on Friday, Nov. 13, against Truman State in Cedarville, Ohio, and they will carry Sunday’s first half with them as proof of what their lineup can do when the shots fall and the defense forces mistakes.