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Western Michigan
Men's Basketball Wins 69-66 in Overtime Thriller at WMU
February 08 | Men's Basketball
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KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Forty minutes was not enough as the Akron Zips won their first overtime game of the season, defeating Western Michigan 69-66 at University Arena, Wednesday night in a Mid-American Conference cross-divisional matchup.
Trailing by as many as 11 points in the game, the Zips (17-7, 9-1 MAC) out-scored the Broncos 37-28 in the second half and 10-7 in overtime.
Alex Abreu tied for the game high with 15 points and added four assists and four steals. Zeke Marshall (14), Brian Walsh (12) and Quincy Diggs (10) also scored in double figures for the Zips. Akron has now won six-straight games overall and tied the best start to MAC play in school history (9-1).
Demetrius Treadwell added nine points and nine rebounds, all coming in the second half.
Mike Douglas led WMU (10-14, 4-6 MAC) with 15 points.
Diggs' three-point play with 1:39 left in overtime gave Akron a 66-63 lead. WMU would go on to tie the game at 66-all at the line before Marshall took the lead back for the Zips with two free throws of his own with 36.6 seconds left. The Broncos would hold for the last shot, but would come up short, as Diggs would ice the game at the charity stripe.
Both teams traded points for the first five minutes of the second half as WMU held on to its nine-point advantage (35-26) with 16:24 left in the game. The Zips would then begin to chip away at that lead, scoring the next five points and trailing 35-31 with 13:42 to go.
Akron continued to grind away, erasing the once 11-point deficit to tie the game at 44-all with 7:10 remaining. The Zips would grab their first lead since the 12:30 mark (12-10) on a traditional three-point play by Treadwell (48-47) with 5:24 left on the second-half clock.
With the game tied at 53 with 3:33 to go, WMU scored five-straight points to regain the lead (58-53) at the 2:33 mark. The Zips forced two turnovers on the next two Broncos' possessions to close within one point (58-57) entering the final minute.
A defensive stop on the next WMU possession gave UA the ball and a chance to take the lead following a full timeout with 34.2 seconds on the game clock. Marshall was able to convert a second opportunity to give the Zips a 59-58 lead. WMU tied the game at the line and a Diggs 3-pointer at the buzzer would not fall to send the game to overtime (59-59).
After opening up a 10-6 lead by the 16:16 mark, WMU used a 11-2 run over the next 5:45 to take a 17-12 advantage. Abreu's 3-pointer with 8:07 left in the half ended a 5:49 scoring drought for the Zips and cut the Broncos' lead to 17-15.
The Broncos opened up their biggest lead of the game with 1:24 left before the intermission (31-20) thanks to a 14-5 run that covered nearly seven minutes. The Zips would hit two free throws with 1:07 left to go into the locker room down 31-22.
The Zips closed the half shooting 31.0 percent from the field (9-of-29) and connected on just 1-of-7 from long range (14.3 percent). Akron forced 11 WMU turnovers to just six, but was out-rebounded 25-10.
Akron returns to Rhodes Arena for a two-game homestand beginning with Northern Illinois on Saturday, Feb. 11. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET following the women's game against Western Michigan, which will begin at 5 p.m.
Zips Notebook: Tonight's game was No. 2,400 in program history, second-most of any Mid-American Conference program (Ohio) ... Brett McClanahan blocked just the fifth shot of his career ... the 9-1 start tied the 2005-06 and 2006-07 squads for the best start to MAC play.
