The University of Akron Athletics
University of Akron
Eastern Michigan
Men's Basketball Tallies Win No. 20 with 70-62 Victory at Eastern Michigan
February 13 | Men's Basketball
Follow Akron Basketball on Twitter and Facebook | Buy Tickets
Final Statistics | Final Statistics (PDF) | Season Statistics
YPSILANTI, Mich. – For the eighth-straight year, the Akron Zips have won at least 20 games thanks to a 70-62 road win over Eastern Michigan on Wednesday in a Mid-American Conference cross-divisional match-up.
The Zips join Butler, Duke, Florida, Gonzaga, Kansas, Pittsburgh and Syracuse as the only programs to win at least 20 games in each of the past eight seasons. The win also extended Akron's overall winning streak to 16 games, the longest in the nation.
Brian Walsh led four Zips in double figures with a game-high 16 points, going 5-of-9 from the field and 4-of-8 from behind the arc. Nick Harney (14), Zeke Marshall (12) and Demetrius "Tree" Treadwell (11) also scored in double figures. Alex Abreu had a game-high nine assists.
For the game, Akron (20-4, 11-0 MAC) shot 53.2 percent from the floor (25-of-47) and connected on 39.1 percent from long range (9-of-23). The Zips out-rebounded EMU 34-26, but committed 20 turnovers to just 14 by the Eagles.
Glenn Bryant lead Eastern Michigan (11-13, 4-6 MAC) with 11 points.
The Akron defense came out strong to start the second half, forcing five EMU turnovers in the first four minutes. The Zips were also able to push their advantage to 37-31.
The UA lead would climb to eight (39-31) before EMU slowly began to chip away at that advantage. The Eagles would tie the game at 39-all by the 10:14 mark. The game would remain tied (45-45) with 7:03 remaining.
The Zips would use a mini 7-0 run to open up a 52-45 advantage by the 5:26 mark but a 3-pointer by EMU's Jalen Ross ended Akron's scoring streak.
Three 3-pointers by Walsh and a fourth by Harney in a 3:35 stretch would push the Akron lead to 11 points (61-50) with 2:43 left in the game.
EMU would close the gap to 63-56 with 1:18 remaining but the Zips would hold on for the 70-62 win.
Akron opened up an early 9-2 lead but EMU would slowly close the gap to one (19-18) with 7:29 left in the first half. The Zips were shooting the ball well, connecting on 56.3 percent from the floor (9-of-16), but had committed nine turnovers by the under-8 media timeout.
A Reggie McAdams 3-pointer and a Treadwell layup gave the Zips a 26-20 advantage with 4:55 remaining. Both teams would trade points the rest of the half as Akron would take a 29-26 advantage into the locker room.
Akron shot the ball well over the first 20 minutes, connecting on 50.0 percent from the floor (12-of-24) and 44.4 percent from long range (4-of-9). However, 12 UA turnovers helped EMU keep the game close.
Harney led all scorers in the half with 9 points of 4-of-5 shooting to go with two boards. Treadwell and Abreu had six points each.
The Zips return home to play host to Bowling Green on Saturday, Feb. 16, at Rhodes Arena. The contest, which is part of a doubleheader with the women's team, is set for a 7:30 p.m. ET tip-off.
Zips Notebook: Akron has now won 12-straight games in MAC play dating back to last season ... the win over EMU completed UA's second-straight sweep of the MAC West ... the Zips have now won 15-straight regular season and 17-straight games overall against MAC West.
