The University of Akron Athletics
University of Akron
Ohio
Men's Basketball Falls 85-61 at Ohio
February 26 | Men's Basketball
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ATHENS, Ohio – The Akron Zips dropped a 85-61 road decision to Mid-American Conference foe Ohio on Sunday night at the Convocation Center.
The loss snapped the Zips (20-9, 12-2 MAC) nine-game conference winning streak.
Akron closed the game shooting 32.7 percent from the field (16-of-49) and 37.5 from 3-point range (6-of-16).
Brian Walsh led the way with 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting and a 4-of-4 performance at the charity stripe. Nikola Cvetinovic added 11 points, three rebounds and two assists.
Nick Kellogg led Ohio (23-6, 10-4 MAC) with 17 points.
The Akron deficit grew to 23 points on two occasions in the second half, the second coming at the 16:48 mark (56-33). The Akron defense forced two shot clock violations and slowly began to chip away at Ohio's lead, closing the gap to 56-39 with 15:19 left in the game.
Ohio would use a 13-2 run to gain its largest lead of the game at 69-41 at the 10:52 mark of the second half. The lead would prove too much for the Zips to overcome.
Akron came out cold early on in the first half, falling behind Ohio 19-13 with 10:47 on the clock. However, Alex Abreu answered with five points in a 20-second stretch to cut the advantage to 19-13 (10:06).
The Zips would trail by 18 points (38-20) with 5:00 to go in the half before a Walsh 3-point gave Akron its first bucket in over four minutes. The bucket cut the Bobcats' lead to 40-25 at the 3:29 mark. Cvetinovic made the deficit 40-27 on Akron's next possession (2:26).
Ohio would score the final six points of the half to take a 46-27 advantage to the locker room.
Walsh led the way for the Zips with eight points in the half as Akron was held to 37.0 shooting (10-of-27) over the first 20 minutes. UA held a 17-11 rebounding advantage but committed 13 turnovers to just four by OU.
Akron returns home on Wednesday to honor seniors Nikola Cvetinovic, Brett McClanahan and Kyle Petersen when the Zips play host to Buffalo. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET.
Zips Notebook: The Zips lead the MAC East by two games with two contests left (Buffalo, at Kent State).
