Akron Drops Road Game to Miami RedHawks, 79-64

Tuesday, January 30

Oxford, OH

7 p.m.

University of Akron

3-610-11; MAC

Miami

5-412-10; MAC

AKRON

Miami

January 30 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

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Oxford, Ohio – The Akron Zips were unable to overcome a pair of first-half runs by the RedHawks as Miami defeated the Zips 79-64 at Millett Hall on Tuesday night.

The Zips (10-11, 3-6 MAC) started the scoring as junior Lucas Smith (Omaha, Neb.) buried a corner 3-ball that sparked a 15-4 run to open the game. Akron led by as many as 13 points in the opening frame behind five points each from freshmen Eric Parrish (Cypress, Texas) and Virshon Cotton (Milwaukee, Wisc.).

The RedHawks trimmed the Zips' advantage to eight points, but Smith connected from long distance a second time to push the lead back to double digits, 22-11. Sophomore Daniel Utomi (Houston, Texas) drained a pair of free throws to keep Akron ahead by 10 points, but the RedHawks would eventually tie the game with 10 unanswered points by the under-8 media timeout, 24-24.

When play resumed, Miami (12-10, 5-4 MAC) captured its first lead of the game at 26-24 as Logan McLane finished at the rim. The two teams traded buckets for the next four minutes until Miami's Bam Bowman used a pair of free throws and a triple on back-to-back possessions to give the RedHawks a five-point lead with 2:18 left in the half, 36-31. The RedHawks added five more points to finish a 10-0 run and enter the locker room with a 41-31 halftime advantage.

In the second half, senior Malcolm Duvivier (Toronto, Ontario) opened with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to single digits. However, Miami managed to build 15-point advantage within the first five minutes of the second frame and never looked back.

Duvivier grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds en route to his first double-double for the blue and gold by adding 13 points. Utomi matched the 13 points, while Parrish rounded out the Zips' double-digit scoring with 10 points.

Akron finished the game shooting 40.7 percent from the field (24-of-59), but fell below its 37.6 percent pace from beyond the 3-point arc, finishing 7-of-31 from deep. The Zips posted their second-straight 90.0 percent effort from the free throw line but were slightly outrebounded 35-32.

The RedHawks also won the turnover battle by a slim 10-6 margin and shot 48.3 percent from the field, including a 10-of-30 effort from long distance. Miami had five players score in double figures led by Dalonte Brown's 17-point performance. Bowman added 13 points, while Darrian Ringo and Nike Sibande chipped in 12 points apiece and McLane added 10 points.

The Zips will be back at James A. Rhodes Arena to start the second half of the MAC season. Akron is scheduled to host the Toledo Rockets on Saturday, Feb. 3 at Noon ET with CBS Sports Network scheduled to televise the game. Fans can also follow the action on 1350-AM or GoZips.com.