The University of Akron Athletics
University of Akron
Central Michigan
Men's Basketball Guts Out 74-64 Win at Central Michigan
January 28 | Men's Basketball
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MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Zeke Marshall and Nick Harney scored 13 points each to help the Akron Zips to a 74-64 road win at Central Michigan on Saturday in a Mid-American Conference cross divisional matchup.
Marshall finished 3-of-4 from the field and 7-of-11 from the line while Harney was 4-of-4 from the field and 4-of-4 from the line. Chauncey Gilliam also reached double figures with 11 points.
The Zips (14-7, 6-1 MAC) finished the game shooting 48.9 percent from the field (22-of-45) and finished with a 34-30 rebounding advantage.
Derek Jackson led CMU (7-13, 2-5 MAC) with a game-high 21 points.
CMU scored the first five points of the second half to cut the Akron lead to 40-33 with 19:06 left in the game. The Zips answered by scoring the next seven points to push their advantage back to 47-33 by the 16:34 mark.
After the Chippewas closed to within six points (52-46) with 9:55 to go, Alex Abreu answered with five-straight points to push Akron's lead back to 57-46 (8:46). The buckets ended a 3:31 drought by the Zips.
The double-digit lead was short-lived as CMU responded to cut the UA advantage to five (57-52) with 7:28 to go. Harney answered with six points of his own to push the Akron advantage back to 63-54 at the 5:39 mark.
A 3-pointer by CMU's Derek Jackson got the Chippewas within three points (63-60) with 3:18 to go. However, the Zips would make five free throws, including an and-one by Marshall, to push their lead back to 71-60 with 1:00 to go.
The Zips opened up an early 7-2 lead to force a CMU timeout with 16:23 left in the opening half. With Akron leading 15-11 with 13:45 on the clock, the Zips used an 8-0 run to push its advantage to 23-11 by the under-12 media timeout (11:32).
UA pushed its lead to as many as 19 (34-15) with 5:29 to go before CMU responded by ending a four-and-a-half minute drought with nine of the next 14 points. The Akron lead heading into the under-four media timeout (3:18) was 38-24.
The Zips closed out the half with a 40-28 advantage as the teams headed to the locker room. Akron shot 54.2 percent in the first half (13-of-24) and won the rebounding battle 23-16. UA shared the ball well as eight-of-nine players that appeared in the first half had at least one point and the Zips dished out 10 assists on 13 made buckets.
Gilliam led the way with eight points while Marshall and Harney had seven points each.
Akron returns to Rhodes Arena for four of its next five games beginning with a TV match-up with Toledo on Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 7 p.m. ET. The game will air live on SportsTime Ohio.
Zips Notebook: In honor of Coaches vs. Cancer National Awareness Weekend, the UA coaching staff participated in the "Suits and Sneakers" program by wearing tennis shoes on the sideline during the game ... with his first blocked shot of the game, Zeke Marshall passed Northern Illinois' James Hughes (2004-07) for seventh on the MAC career blocked shots list (215) ... head coach Keith Dambrot passed CMU's Dick Parfitt (1972-85) for eighth place on the all-time MAC league wins list with his 96th win in conference play.
