Men’s Basketball Cruises to 77-47 Win Over Eastern Michigan
| Final | 1 | 2 | T |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Michigan (10-13, 5-4 MAC) | 16 | 31 | 47 |
| Akron (16-7, 8-1 MAC) | 39 | 38 | 77 |
| Akron, Ohio (Rhodes Arena) | |||
| Eastern Michigan | Akron |
|---|---|
| Pts: BALKEMA, Matt - 15 | Pts: Chauncey Gilliam - 13 |
| Reb: BALKEMA, Matt - 6 | Reb: Demetrius Treadwell - 9 |
| Ast: LAMPLEY, Darrell - 5 | Ast: Alex Abreu - 5 |
| Team Statistics | Eastern Michigan | Akron |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goal % | 32.1% (17-53 ) | 44.8% (26-58 ) |
| Rebounds | 29 | 46 |
| Assists | 11 | 16 |
| Turnovers | 18 | 16 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 13 | 26 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 4 | 15 |
| Pts in the Paint | 16 | 28 |
| Fastbreak Pts | 2 | 0 |
| Bench Pts | 30 | 27 |
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AKRON, Ohio – Chauncey Gilliam scored 13 points and Nikola Cvetinovic had 12 points and seven rebounds to guide Akron to an easy 77-47 win over Eastern Michigan in Mid-American Conference action on Saturday night at Rhodes Arena.
That duo combined to make 10-of-19 shots from the field (Gilliam 5-of-9) as two of four Akron (16-7, 8-1 MAC) players to score in double-figures.
Zeke Marshall and Brett McClanahan scored 11 points apiece for the Zips. Marshall continued his assault on the MAC record book, moving into sixth place on the career blocked shots list with his 224th swat (four tonight).
The victory, UA's fifth straight and 13th in the last 15 games, gave eighth-year Akron head coach Keith Dambrot his 178 win at UA and tied him with former coach Tony Laterza (1960-68) for second place on the school's all-time wins list.
Matt Balkema led Eastern Michigan (10-13, 5-4 MAC) with 15 points and six rebounds.
The game got off to a slow start with both teams trying to feel each other out. However, it was Akron that grabbed a 10-point lead (17-7) with 11:07 to go in the first half. From there, the Zips would go on a 14-2 run over the next 3:46 to open up a 31-9 advantage by the 7:21 mark.
Akron held Eastern Michigan to just seven points the rest of the half and would take a 39-16 lead into the locker room.
Cvetinovic lead all scorers in the half with eight points and four rebounds. Gilliam and Marshall each had seven points while Walsh led all players with six boards.
The Zips shot 44.8 percent in the half (13-of-29) while holding a 23-15 advantage on the boards. Akron's defense held EMU to just 20.0 percent shooting from the floor (4-of-20) and forced 15 turnovers.
Akron pushed its lead to as many as 26 points (50-24) over the first 8:23 and the Zips maintained a 50-29 lead by the under-12 media timeout (11:37).
EMU began to chip away at the Akron advantage, cutting the lead to 15 points (52-37) with 8:53 left in the game. The 15-point deficit was the smallest for the Eagles since the 9:03 mark of the first half (24-9). Akron would quickly push its lead back to 20-points and would eventually lead by as many as 31 (73-42).
Akron hits the road for one game when it travels to Kalamazoo, Mich., to face Western Michigan on Wednesday, Feb. 8. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET and the game will air live on SportsTime Ohio.
Zips Notebook: Eastern Michigan's 16 points in the first half were a season low for an Akron opponent in the opening 20 minutes ... the previous low was 19 points by Florida A&M (Dec. 17) ... Zeke Marshall passed Ohio's Patrick Flomo (222, 1998-2002) ... sophomore walk-on Luke Avsec made his Zips debut in the second half, he played two minutes and had one rebound ... dating to last season, UA has won nine-straight games during the month of February and the program is 16-3 during that month since the 2009-10 campaign.
