Ohio Defeats Akron Behind 10 Dartis 3-Pointers, 99-75

Tuesday, February 6

Athens, OH

7 p.m.

University of Akron

10-13 (3-8MAC)

Ohio

10-13 (3-8MAC)

AKRON

OHIO

Ohio Defeats Akron Behind 10 Dartis 3-Pointers, 99-75

February 06 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Follow Akron Basketball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram | Follow Coach Groce on Twitter
Box Score PDF | Game Notes PDF | ESPN3 | Live Stats | Akron-IMG Sports Network | Season Tickets | Akron Basketball Schedule
Athens, Ohio – Every Zip touched the scoring column, but the Akron men's basketball could not slow down a red-hot Jordan Dartis in a 99-75 setback at Ohio Bobcats Convocation Center on Tuesday night.

The Zips (10-13, 3-8 MAC) had three players score in double figures led by sophomore Daniel Utomi (Houston, Texas) with 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor and a 4-of-6 effort from deep. He added a 5-of-6 effort from the charity stripe with four rebounds and two steals. Senior Malcolm Duvivier (Toronto, Ohio) followed with 15 points while freshman Eric Parrish (Cypress, Texas) added 13 points.

Ohio (10-13, 3-8 MAC) won the opening tap and went straight to work, scoring the game's first bucket, but the Zips answered with back-to-back long-distance strikes from Utomi and Duvivier. Akron pushed the lead to as many as eight points, 10-2, in the initial 2.5 minutes until an 8-0 run by the Bobcats tied the game at the first media timeout.

The lead changed hands three times and the game was tied on two more occasions before either team created any distance on the scoreboard. At the 8:44 mark, Ohio holding on to a 3-point advantage when James Gollon connected from deep to spark a 13-0 run.

During that stretch, Dartis began to heat up as he buried back-to-back triples. He continued to hit from deep adding four more trifectas to lift the Bobcats to a 22 point advantage, 54-32. Dartis finished with 26 first-half points on 9-of-13 shooting and 6-of-9 from long range.

As a team, the Bobcats were on fire shooting 18-of-27 (.667) from the floor and 69.2 percent from long distance (9-of-13). Meanwhile, the Zips connected on 38.2 percent of their shots (13-of-34) with four triples (4-of-15). Akron made four trips to the free throw line and drained all four attempts while Ohio was 11-of-15 from the charity stripe.

Duvivier led Akron's first-half scoring with 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting.

Dartis did not cool down over the halftime break, nailing his first two 3-point attempts to spark a 10-2 run in the opening minutes, and pushing the Bobcats lead to 30 points, 66-36.

Akron continued to battle but was unable to get the spread under 24 points for the remainder of the game.

Dartis finished with 38 points to lead all scoring while shooting 13-of-20 from the field and 10-of-15 from downtown. As a team, Ohio shot 54.2 percent from the floor (32-of-59), including a 59.3 percent effort from long distance (16-of-27). The Bobcats held a 38-34 advantage on the glass and the turnover battle was deadlocked at 15 apiece.

Akron finished the game shooting 41.5 percent from the floor (27-of-65) and 23.1 percent from deep (6-of-26) while adding a 75 percent performance from the charity stripe (15-of-20).

The Zips will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 10, at James A. Rhodes Arena against MAC West Division opponent Central Michigan. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. and the game is scheduled to be aired on ESPN3. Fans can also follow the action on 1350-AM or GoZips.com.