No. 12 Akron and No. 5 Ohio Set For RubberMatch In MAC Tournament Opening Round

Monday, March 5

Athens, OH

7 p.m.

University of Akron

Ohio University

No. 12 Akron and No. 5 Ohio Set For RubberMatch In MAC Tournament Opening Round

March 04 | Women's Basketball

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Akron at Ohio - 2018 MAC Tournament Round One Game Notes: 3/5/18
2018 MAC Tournament Bracket

Akron (9-20, 3-15 MAC) at Ohio (15-14, 9-9 MAC)

Monday, March 5
Convocation Center
Athens, Ohio • 7:00 p.m.

Live Stats: GoZips.com
Radio: Bill Morgan will have the call starting with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m. To tune in head to GoZips.com and the Zips Digital Network.
Watch: ESPN3

What's Ahead
The 2018 Mid-American Conference tournament is here and a rubber-match between Zips and Bobcats awaits the two schools in the first round. No. 12 Akron travels to Athens, Ohio to face off against No. 5 Ohio on Monday, March 5, at 7 p.m., from inside the Convocation Center. The winner of the match-up will head to Cleveland, Ohio, for the quarterfinal round of the tournament on Wednesday, March 7.

Zips History In The Mid-American Conference Tournament
Akron is slated to appear in its 33rd all-time Mid-American Conference Tournament contest on Monday, March 7, at the Convocation Center when the Zips square off with Ohio. Akron owns an 11-21 tournament record dating back to 1995. Head coach Jodi Kest has compiled a 10-10 record in postseason play, which includes winning seven of its last 11 contests in the MAC tournament.

Ohio holds a 1-0 record all-time against the Zips in MAC Tournament history. The only meeting between the Akron and the Bobcats was in 1995 and Ohio defeated the Zips, 76-51.

Akron enters tourney play as the No. 12 seed for the sixth time since the league expanded to 12 members in 1997 and owns a 0-5 record as the 12th seeded team.

MAC Tournament Notes
Eight members of the current Akron roster have recorded playing time in a Mid-American Conference Tournament contest. Senior Greta Burry is making her sixth postseason appearance and has seen 100 minutes of playing time, while senior Lauren Hung and redshirt junior Megan Sefcik have played in three MAC Tournament contests.

Burry is averaging 4.2 points and 4.6 rebounds in her five postseason contests while Sefcik is scoring 1.5 points.

Shaunay Edmonds, Alyssa Clay, Shayna Harmon, Haliegh Reinoehl, and Caitlin Vari each made their respective postseason debuts in 2017. Edmonds scored six points and dished out four assists, Reinoehl grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds and scored five points, and Vari added two points and five rebounds.

Scouting The Bobcats
Ohio concluded the 2017-18 regular season owning a 15-14 overall record while posting a 9-9 ledger in conference action. The Bobcats .500 record in league play earned Ohio the fifth seed in the 2018 MAC tournament and a home game in the first round of postseason play. Ohio enters the contest against Akron after losing three straight contests to end the regular season including a loss to Akron, 59-62, on the final day of the regular season, at Buffalo (53-70) and at home against Miami (56-78).

Cierra Hooks, Amani Burke, and Gabby Burris pace the Bobcats offensive attack as the trio averages double-figures in the scoring column heading into the conference postseason tournament. Hooks leads Ohio scoring 13.8 points per game while coming off the bench as a reserve. Additionally, Hooks leads the squad in rebounding (4.8 reb/game) and steals (3.5 stl/game). Burke is averaging 12.9 points per contests, shoots 35-percent from the field, 26-percent from long range while recording 46 steals, and 29 assists. Burris has started eight of the last nine match-ups heading into the tourney play and averages 10.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. 28 game starter, Dominque Doseck scores nearly double digits per game with 9.6 points per contest while shooting 36-percent from the field. The Bobcats point guard, Taylor Agler, owns a team-best 142 assists (4.9/tilt) while scoring 7.8 points per contest.

Probable Starters
Ohio: Taylor Agler, Katie Barker, Amani Burke, Dominique Doseck, Kendall Jessing.

Akron: Shaunay Edmonds, Megan Sefcik, Shayna Harmon, Haliegh Reinoehl, Greta Burry.

Series History
The Zips and Bobcats are scheduled to square off for the 61st time, as Akron and Ohio have battled on the court 60 times in each programs respective history. Since the first meeting in 1976-77, Akron trails in the all-time series history, 19-41, against the Bobcats.

The Last Meeting
After falling behind early, the University of Akron women's basketball team rallied and rode a strong defensive effort to a 62-59 win over the Ohio Bobcats on senior day Saturday afternoon, as Akron closed out the 2017-18 regular season at James A. Rhodes Arena with one final victory.

The Zips (9-20, 3-15 Mid-American Conference) trailed by as many as nine (20-11) in the first quarter, but took the lead early in the second period and never trailed again as they limited the Bobcats (15-14, 9-9 MAC) to 32.3-percent (21-of-65) shooting and claimed a 48-45 rebounding edge over the visitors.

Edmonds led a balanced Akron attack with 19 points, three assists, and three rebounds, while senior guard Lauren Hung (Waterford, Mich.) and sophomore guard Shayna Harmon (Ashville, Ohio) each added nine for the Zips. Sophomore Haliegh Reinoehl (Westfield, Ind.) was huge for the Zips on the glass grabbing 12 total rebounds, including seven defensive boards and five offensive rebounds.

Akron vs. Ohio - The Rubber-Match
Akron and Ohio are scheduled to meet for the third time in the 2017-18 season with each respective team earning a win and defending their home court. Ohio defeated Akron 70-67 on Jan. 6 in an overtime battle, while the Zips ended the regular season with a 62-59 win over the Bobcats at James A. Rhodes Arena. In the two games, each team is averaging 64.5 points per game. Akron owns the advantage in shooting percentage (.374-to-.341), three-point percentage (.262-to-.167), and rebounds (92-91) over Ohio, but the Bobcats had fewer turnovers (33-to-44) and more steals (17-to-11) than the Zips. Shaunay Edmonds and Shayna Harmon saw success against the Bobcats this year scoring 14 points per game, respectively. To go along with their scoring, Edmonds dished out eight assists and Harmon grabbed 10 rebounds.

Mid-American Conference Member
The Zips have been a member of the Mid-American Conference for the past 26 years after joining the league in 1992 from the North Star Conference.

Coaches
Ohio: Bob Boldon is amidst his fifth season as the head coach of the Ohio Bobcats women's basketball program. Boldon led the Bobcats to back-to-back MAC regular-season titles (2014-16) and four consecutive postseason appearances.

Akron: Jodi Kest, the all-time winningest coach in program history, is in her 12th-season in charge of the Zips program. The longest-tenured coach in the Mid-American Conference holds an all-time record of 179-194 (.480) at Akron and a 405-347 (.539) in her 25 years as a head coach.

Jodi Kest Coaching Tree
Ohio's head coach, Boldon, spent five seasons as an assistant coach on Jodi Kest's coaching staff spending one season at Gannon, two seasons at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and two seasons with the Zips. In two seasons in Texas, Boldin aided Kest in leading the Islanders to a combined 34-21 record in two seasons, while the duo helped start Akron's turnaround into a top competitor inside the MAC.

With A Win Over Ohio, The Zips Would

Earn their 10th win of the 2017-18 season.
Take a 2-1 season series win over Ohio.
Move on to the quarterfinals of the 2018 MAC Tournament.
Earn the Zips fourth win in the opening round of the MAC Tournament.
Earn head coach Jodi Kest's 11th MAC tournament victory.

2017-18 Zip Breakdown
Under the guidance of Kest, the Zips finished the regular-season with a 9-20 overall record while posting a 3-15 Mid-American Conference ledger. The Zips roster consists of 13 young and talented players highlighted by, sophomore guard Shaunay Edmonds (Pittsburgh, Pa.), sophomore forward Haliegh Reinoehl (Westfield, Ind.), and sophomore forward Caitlin Vari (Revere, Ohio), along with the veteran presence of senior forward Greta Burry (Lakewood, Ohio), senior guard Lauren Hung (Waterford, Mich.), and redshirt junior guard Megan Sefcik (Austintown, Ohio).

Edmonds took on the role as the team's facilitator and floor general, while also having the ability to score the ball. Through 29 games, Edmonds averaged 11.3 points, a team-high 4.1 assists, and 2.0 steals per game. The Zips' point guard scored a season- and career-best 27 points against Eastern Michigan, set a new career mark with nine assists against Kent State, and posted a career-best six steals against Harvard.

Reinoehl become a staple in the Zips starting five since midway through her freshman season and has since started the last 42 contests dating back to 2017 for Akron. Reinoehl recorded a career-best game against Southeastern Louisiana (21 pts/11 reb) and has since recorded three more double-double's against SIU Edwardsville (11 pts/10 reb), versus Central Michigan (15 pts/11 reb), and in a win at Eastern Michigan (15 pts/14 reb). The forward is the team's fourth-leading scorer, 7.6 points per game and leads the squad in rebounding with 252 total rebounds, 8.7 per contest.

Sefcik posted a career year in her junior season en route to leading the team in scoring with 11.5 points per game while shooting 34-percent from long range. The Zips' guard broke the Akron single-game three-point record with 10 triples against Ohio Christian, while also tying the MAC record, en route to a career-high 32 points.

Burry, the Zip with the most playing experience on the roster, was the centerfold of the squad. In 434 minutes of play and 19 starts, Burry averaged 5.0 points and 3.6 rebounds per tilt. Burry grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds against SLU and scored a season-best 14 points against EKU.

Vari, a member of the Zips frontcourt saw 536 minutes of action and started 10 contests. Vari grabs 5.6 rebounds per contest, including a team second-best 46 offensive rebounds. In addition to the rebounding, Vari averages 6.0 points per contest.

Sophomores Alyssa Clay (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Shayna Harmon (Ashville, Ohio) saw a significant bump in playing time in year two. Harmon started 20 contests and owned the third-most assists on the squad (52). Clay saw 595 minutes of action through 29 contests, including her first career starts while stepping in for Harmon due to injury. Clay owns the team-best shooting percentage from beyond the arc (.354, 45-of-127), which is highlighted by a career night against Bowling Green scoring 22 points and including 6-of-8 triples.

Freshmen Kynnedy Azubike (Columbus, Ohio), Sarah Leyendecker (Lawrenceburg, Ind.) and Destiny Perkins (Indianapolis, Ind.) made their collegiate debuts for the Zips three games into the season and have combined to score 409 points.

Perkins has taken over the backup point guard role and averaged 7.7 points per game, third-best on the squad, while dishing out a team second-most 66 assists. Perkins had a career-night against Miami scoring 21 points and career-best 5 steals against the RedHawks. Azubike scored over 100 points this season (111) and averaged 3.8 points per game along with 3.1 rebounds per contest. The lanky, 6-4, Leyendecker has reeled in 2.7 rebounds a game, led the Zips in blocks (22), which included an eight-block performance against Ohio Christian.

Kest named Burry, Sefcik, and Reinoehl as the 2017-18 season captains.

Up Next
The winner of No. 12 Akron versus No. 5 Ohio will move on to the quarterfinal round of the 2018 MAC tournament in Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday, March 7. The winner of the contest will go on to face No. 4 Miami.