Zips Earn 20th Win Behind Cheese Double-Double

Tuesday, February 18

Kalamazoo, MI

7 PM

University of Akron

20-6,10-3MAC

Western Michigan

11-15,4-9MAC

Akron

Western Mich.

February 18 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

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Kalamazoo, Mich. – The Akron Zips recorded their 20^th win of the season as senior Tyler Cheese (Albany, Ga.) notched a double-double to lift Akron to a 71-67 win over Western Michigan at Read Fieldhouse on Tuesday night.

Cheese led the Zips with a 23-point, 11-rebound effort. His 23-point performance stands as his second-best scoring effort of the season while the 11 boards marks a season high. Cheese shot 7-of-14 (.500) from the floor, 3-of-5 (.600) from deep and 6-of-7 (.857) from the free throw line to go along with three steals, two assists and a blocked shot.

Senior Loren Cristian Jackson (Chicago, Ill.) followed with 17 points, four assists and two rebounds as Akron (20-6, 10-3 Mid-American) collected their sixth league win on the road (6-1). With the win, Akron moved to a first-place stalemate with Bowling Green and the Zips currently own the tie-breaker.

Both teams struggled to put points on the board early, starting the game 2-of-10 collectively. With four minutes expired the score was 3-2 in favor of Western Michigan (11-15, 4-9 Mid-American) as both squads shot 1-of-5 from the field.

Cheese recorded the Zips initial bucket and scored seven of the Zips first nine points. His transition 3-pointer at the 13:47 mark gave Akron its second and final lead of the game, although the home team kept the game close. Akron led for 34:33 of the contest.

Akron led by as many as eight points in the first frame after a 10-2 run created distance on the scoreboard. Jackson lifted the Zips to a 17-10 advantage with a deep triple from the center of the floor, and a Cheese long-range jumper set the Zips ahead 29-21 with 5:47 left to play.

The Zips held a 21-16 edge on the glass in the opening 20-minutes and registered 11 second chance points as Akron led 36-29 at intermission. The Zips committed nine turnovers which turned into four points for the Broncos. However, the Zips forced 10 turnovers and capitalized with nine points.

The Broncos scored 20-of-29 points in the paint as Michael Flowers notched 14 of his 22 points in the first frame. Cheese and Jackson posted double-digit scoring efforts in the first half with 14 and 10, respectively.

In the second half, Akron pushed the lead to nine points within the first five minutes, 46-37. However, the Broncos began to chip away at the visitors lead and used a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to one-point. 51-50.

On the ensuing possession, Jackson pulled up for a 3-point attempt on a fastbreak. He buried the shot to give Akron a four-point advantage. The Zips pushed the lead back to nine points, 64-55, after a series of free throws from Cheese and senior Xeyrius Williams (Springfield, Ohio).

Akron finished the game shooting 37.9 percent from the floor (22-of-58) and 33.3 percent from long distance (8-of-24). The Zips took better care of the ball in the second stanza and ended with 13 turnovers while edging the Broncos on the glass 40-37.

Flowers led the WMU with 22 points while Brandon Johnson posted a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double.

Junior Jaden Sayles (Cincinnati, Ohio) chipped in nine points and three rebounds in the winning effort while senior Deng Riak (Melbourne, Australia), freshman Greg Tribble (Huntington, W.Va.) and Williams finished with six points each.

The Zips return to James A. Rhodes Arena to play the second meeting of the season against Miami on Saturday, Feb. 22 the Zips take the court following the women's game at 1 p.m. The men's tip-off is scheduled for roughly 4 p.m. on ESPN+ which also can be heard on at SportsRadio1350.com, iHeart Radio, and TuneIn.com/AkronZips. Fans can also follow the action on GoZips.com via Live Stats.