The University of Akron Athletics
Zips Fall 69-56 to Irish in NCAA Tourney Second Round
March 18 | Men's Basketball
Notre Dame's pace was off. The Irish were overanxious at the beginning of their NCAA opener, knowing that as a second seed they were expected to win against Akron.
Leading the scrappy Zips by four at the break, the Irish scored the first nine of the second half to build a more comfortable lead and then held on for a 69-56 victory on Friday at the United Center in the second round of the Southwest Regional.
"It took us a long time to kind of calm down. I'm glad the halftime was 20 minutes because we needed all of it just to kind of ratchet our blood pressure down a little bit," Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said. "We were better in the second half because our tempo was better."
Ben Hansbrough finished with 15 points. Tim Abromaitis added 14, Scott Martin pitched in 9 of his 11 points in the second half and Carleton Scott tied his high with 14 rebounds.
Next up for the Irish (27-6) is the winner of Florida State-Texas A&M.
Hansbrough, the Big East Player of the Year who shot just 3-for-16 in a loss to Louisville in the semifinals of the conference tourney, was just 4-of-11 from the field but was 6-for-6 from the line and had six assists.
The 15th-seeded Zips (23-13) were appearing in their third NCAA Division I tournament and second in three years. Entering the game, they'd won 11 of their previous 13, defeating Kent State in the Mid-American Conference tournament to earn the automatic bid to "The Big Dance".
Their defense played Notre Dame's motion offense tough, especially with 7-footer Zeke Marshall there to block four shots and change the trajectory of numerous others.
"We fought back. We just couldn't put enough baskets together on a continuous basis to win," Akron coach Keith Dambrot said. "That's what a mid-major has to do to beat a high major with a seed that high is you have to shoot the ball better than that."
"We felt like we got good shots even from the outside that just didn't go in for us tonight. We thought we could score on them, but we just didn't. I thought it was going to be a bigger challenge to guard them, and we actually did a decent job."
Quincy Diggs led Akron with 11 points. The Zips shot 35.9 percent and Marshall was 2-for-13 from the floor.
"I had four 2-foot layups I missed in the early part of the game. I don't really recall that it was their defense that caused me to miss. It was just me missing," said Marshall.
The Irish had a huge advantage at the foul line, shooting 20-for-26 to just 3-for-6 for the Zips.
With Notre Dame up 34-30 at the half, Tyrone Nash's three-point play and Martin's jumper got the Irish off to a quick start. A middle-of-the-lane jumper by Scott and another basket by Martin put the Irish up 43-30 as Akron missed its first eight shots of the half.
The Zips later ran off seven-straight points to get back in it. They stayed within five when Marshall dropped in a basket off an inbound pass with just more than 10 minutes to go.
Abromaitis, who got off only two shots in the first half, then sank his second 3-pointer and Scott hit a jumper from the baseline, was fouled and converted a three-point play for a 55-44 lead.
