The University of Akron Athletics
University of Akron
Middle Tennessee
Men's Basketball Drops 77-53 Road Contest at Middle Tennessee
December 04 | Men's Basketball
Buy Tickets | Men's Basketball Gameday Central | Men's Basketball Promotions
Final Statistics (PDF) | Final Statistics (HTML)
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Akron, behind 14 points from Alex Abreu, fell 77-53 to Middle Tennessee on Sunday in a non-conference road contest.
For the game, the Zips (3-4) shot 28.6 percent from the floor (16-of-56) and 28.6 percent from 3-point range (4-of-14). Middle Tennessee (8-1) closed the game shooting 50.9 percent from the floor (28-of-55) and 22.2 percent from long range (2-of-9).
Quincy Diggs also scored in double figures, posting 10 points. Nikola Cvetinovic led the Zips with 10 rebounds in addition to nine points.
MTSU held a 41-34 rebounding advantage and forced 13 Akron turnovers to just eight by the Blue Raiders.
MTSU's LaRon Dendy led all scorers with 19 points and 11 boards.
Akron opened the second half by scoring the first seven points, including a four-point play on a foul and a 3-pointer by Diggs to cut the MTSU lea to 37-31 with 18:18 left in the game.
The Blue Raiders would answer and push their lead back to 52-35 with 11:17 on the second-half clock. Akron would answer, mostly at the foul line, to cut the Middle Tennessee lead to 54-45 with 8:32 to go in the game. The Zips would not overcome the deficit.
The Zips opened an early 5-0 lead to force a Blue Raiders' timeout just 1:31 into the game. Akron would take that lead into the first media timeout before MTSU would go on an 8-0 run to take a 14-9 lead with 12:51 left in the half.
The MTSU lead would grow to 28-12 with 7:02 to go in the half before the Zips began to close the gap. Akron cut the MTSU lead to 37-24 at the half.
The Zips closed the opening half shooting 36.0 percent from the floor (9-of-25) and 22.2 percent from behind the arc (2-of-9). The Blue Raiders shot 53.6 percent in the half (15-of-28) and were 1-of-6 from long range (16.7 percent).
Abreu led Akron with seven points while Cvetinovic chipped in with five points and led all players with six rebounds.
Akron closes out its three-game road trip on Saturday, Dec. 10, when it travels to Cleveland, Ohio, to face Cleveland State at 2 p.m. ET.
Zips Notebook: Akron held Middle Tennessee, who entered the game 11th in the nation in 3-point shooting (44.5 percent), to just 22.2 percent (2-of-9) ... Zeke Marshall had his streak of 20-consecutive games with a blocked shot snapped.
