No. 8 Akron Women's Basketball Seeks Trip To Cleveland As Zips Host No. 9 Toledo In MAC Tournament First Round

Monday, March 9

Akron, Ohio

7 PM

University of Akron

University of Toledo

No. 8 Akron Women's Basketball Seeks Trip To Cleveland As Zips Host No. 9 Toledo In MAC Tournament First Round

March 08 | Women's Basketball

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No. 8 Akron vs. No. 9 Toledo Gamenotes (PDF) | 2020 MAC Tournament Bracket (PDF)

Akron (15-14, 8-10 MAC) vs. Toledo (12-17, 7-11 MAC)
Sunday, March 9
Akron, Ohio • James A. Rhodes Arena • 7:00 p.m.

Game Information
Watch: GoZips.com
Listen: GoZips.com
Live Stats: GoZips.com

What's Ahead
It's tourney time! The 2020 Mid-American Conference Tournament is on deck for the No. 8 Akron women's basketball team. The Zips locked in a home game in the first round of the MAC Tournament and in doing so, host No. 9 Toledo on Monday, March 9, inside James A. Rhodes Arena with first tip between the Zips and Rockets coming at 7 p.m. All the action between UA and UT can be seen live on ESPN+ or heard live on Fox Sports 1350 AM.

Zips History In The Mid-American Conference Tournament
The Akron women's basketball team is scheduled to compete in its 35th all-time Mid-American Conference Tournament contest on Monday, March 9. Heading into the game, Akron has tallied a 12-22 overall record in the conference tournament, captured the tournament championship in 2014, has made the quarterfinals 11 times, semi-finals five times, and championship game twice. UA's first tournament win came in 1999 in a 74-56 win over Bowling Green.

The Zips will host the first round of the league postseason tournament at James A. Rhodes Arena for the sixth time in program history with the Zips holding a 4-1 record when competing at Akron.

Akron and Toledo have gone head-to-head in postseason action seven times dating back to 1996, one year after the Zips joined the Mid-American Conference. UA owns a 2-5 ledger against UT during tourney time with Akron winning two of the last three meetings between the two sides.

When entering the league postseason tournament as the eighth seed, the Zips are 1-3 all-time. Akron picked up a 76-65 win over Western Michigan in 2011. UA has squared off against the Rockets one time as the eighth seeded team and fell 73-65 to UT in the quarterfinal round in 2011.

MAC Tournament Notes

Eight members of the current Akron roster have recorded playing time in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, however, no Zip on the current roster has advanced to the quarterfinal round in Cleveland, Ohio.
While the Zips senior class has played in over 13,000 combined minutes in their careers, the group has played in just 347 combined minutes throughout the MAC Tournament in their first three seasons.
In Tournament play, Haliegh Reinoehl averages a double-double with 11.0 points and 11.3 rebounds.
Sophomores Grabrielle Brown-Mitchell, Kendall Miller, and Colleen Neitzel made their MAC Tournament debuts in 2019 playing a combined 16 minutes. Neitzel recorded two assists and one rebound in the contest.
Point guard Shaunay Edmonds has tallied 13 assists, three steals, and 23 points. Caitlin Vari has garnered 15 rebounds and seven points.
Head coach Melissa Jackson will be making second head coach appearance in the MAC Tournament. Dating back to her time as assistant/associate head coach, Jackson and the Zips went 10-10 winning the programs first tournament championship along with way (2014).

Scouting the No. 9 Rockets
Heading into the first round of the MAC Tournament, Toledo ended the 2019-20 campaign at 7-11 inside league play while posting a 12-17 overall mark. The Rockets opened conference play winnings four of its first contests over Buffalo (71-59), Northern Illinois (63-51), UA (65-61), and Bowling Green (79-72). Over the course of a 10-game span, Toledo dropped 8 contests including a six-game losing streak. Toledo ended the season beating Central Michigan (76-67) before falling to Northern Illinois, 79-86, in the regular-season finale.

The Toledo Rockets are scoring 66.6 points per game while shooting an efficient 41.4-percent from the floor and 30.4-percent from long range. On the defensive side of the ball, the Rockets have recorded 180 steals, 58 blocks, and has forced 415 turnovers. The team leader in scoring for Toledo is junior guard Nakiah Black who scores 11.8 points per game and is shooting 35.9-percent from the floor. Tanaya Beacham, who owns a team-high 59.6-percent from the floor working in the interior, averages 10.5 points per contest and grabs 5.2 rebounds per game. Senior guard Mariella Santucci, ranks fifth in program history in the assist category and leads the Rockets in 2019-20 with 145 assists while also posts a team-best 6.4 rebounds per game. Rounding out the top scorers for the Rockets is Quinesha Lockett who averages 9.4 points per game, 4.7 rebounds per match-up, 41 assists, and 34 steals.

As a unit, Toledo ranks in the top-100 in the NCAA in one statistical category, three-point field goals attempted (92nd, 632). Individually, Santucci ranks in four offensive categories including assists per game (35th, 5.0 apg), total assists (42nd, 145), free throw attempts (142nd, 132), and (assist/turnover ratio (139th, 1.56), while Black is rated 137rd in three-point field goals attempted and 165th in three-point field goals per game.

Scouting No. 8 Akron
Under the direction of second-year head coach, Melissa Jackson, the Akron women's basketball team recorded a 7-4 non-conference record to begin the first half of the 2019-20 campaign and tallied a 14-14 overall record. Since Jackson took over ahead of 2018-19, the Zips are 30-29.

Akron's roster is made up of 14 student-athletes including a core senior class of Alyssa Clay (Indianapolis, Ind.), Shaunay Edmonds (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Shayna Harmon (Ashville, Ohio), Haliegh Reinoehl (Westfield, Ind.), and Caitlin Vari (Richfield, Ohio) who are key contributors for the Zips

Making an impact on the court for the Zips along with the five seniors is junior Jordyn Dawson (Huntington, W. Va.), sophomore Kendall Miller (Akron, Ohio), freshman Rachel Martindale (Pittsburgh, Pa.), and freshman Lonasia Brewer (Akron, Ohio).

The most experienced group inside the 12 Mid-American Conference teams, the Akron senior class is playing a large role in the Zips on-court success. Senior captain Haliegh Reinoehl (Westfield, Ind.) is averaging a team-best 14.7 points, 7.9 rebounds per game, and 69 offensive rebounds. Running the backcourt for the Zips is Edmonds who is averaging 1.0 points 2.6 assists, and 1.6 steals per match-up, along with Harmon who is scoring 6.7 points per contest 28.4 minutes of action. Co-captain, Vari, has made her mark Akron's front-court averaging 6.4 points per game and 6.2 rebounds per outing.

Dawson, in her first season with Akron, became a starter after just three games into the campaign and has since averaged 13.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, is shooting 43.9-percent from the floor, and a team-best 51 steals and 74 assists. In the Zips previous seven games, Dawson has averaged nearly a double-double (16.2 points, 9.1 rebounds) helping the Zips to a 5-2 record.

In her second season, Miller has played a large role off the bench for Akron. Averaging 19.0 minutes per game, the Zips guard scores 4.2 points. Clay, whose role turned into a reserve position, averages 5.8 points per game and is shooting 36-for-99 from long distance.

Probable Starters
Toledo: Nakiah Black, Tanaya Beacham, Mariella Santucci, Tatyana Davis, Quinesha Lockett.

Akron: Shaunay Edmonds, Kendall Miller, Jordyn Dawson, Haliegh Reinoehl, Caitlin Vari.

Series History
Since 1975, Akron and Toledo has met in competition 57 times on the hardwood. In the history between the Zips and Rockets, UT has tallied a 43-14 record against UA. Akron last defeated Toledo in 2018-19, which snapped a three-game losing streak to the Rockets at that point. Since 2014, Akron is 6-4 against UT which included a six-game win streak. When playing in the JAR, Akron is 8-16 overall but 5-3 dating back to 2008

Last Time Out
The Akron women's basketball team mounted a furious second-half comeback outscoring Toledo, 42-27 in the second half and 22-13 in the fourth quarter alone, but ultimately fell to Toledo, 65-61, late in Mid-American Conference action at Savage Arena to close out its two-game road trip in northwest Ohio.

At the 3:48 mark in the third quarter, Akron faced a 20-point deficit trailing 47-27. From that point on, the Zips flipped the script, turned up the intensity, and went on a 12-5 run to whittle its deficit down to 13 points heading into the fourth quarter, just as UA did against Bowling Green only four days ago.

Akron's momentum continued to roll into the fourth quarter and it was hard for the Zips to miss as UA outscored UT 17-2, fired off 12 straight points in the matter of just over three minutes (7:45-4:09), and took its first lead of the contest at the 4:10 mark on an and-one lay-up and free throw from senior guard Shayna Harmon (Ashville, Ohio).

However, Toledo answered the Zips offensive charge with seven straight points in the ensuing three and a half minutes while Akron's hot streak cooled off and went 0-for-4 down while turning the ball over twice down the stretch allowing the Rockets to hold on to the lead as the clock hit 0:00.

Coaches
Toledo: Tricia Cullop, one of the longest-tenured coaches inside the Mid-American Conference, is in her 12th season at the helm of the Toledo women's basketball program. Since taking over, Cullop has led the Rockets to one MAC Championship, two regular-season MAC titles, and four MAC West titles. Cullop's all-time record with Toledo is 376-250 overall and 206-143 in the MAC.

Akron: Melissa Jackson begins her second season at the helm of the Akron women's basketball program. In her debut season, Jackson led the Zips to a 16-15 overall record, a 7-11 MAC ledger, improved by seven wins overall and +4 in conference victories. Jackson's squad became just the eighth team in program history to win at least 16 games in a season.

Mid-American Conference Member
The Zips have been a member of the Mid-American Conference for the past 28 years after joining the league in 1992 from the North Star Conference.

With A Win Over Toledo, Akron Would...

Earn its 16th win of the 2019-20 season.
Advance to the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament
Send the Zips five seniors to Cleveland for the first time in their careers.
Improve to 16-14 on the season.
Close out the Zips 2019-20 home record at 8-7.
Hand head coach Melissa Jackson her 32nd career win.
Capture the 484th win in program history.

Seniors In The Record Books
Three of the Zips five seniors have etched their names into the record books in Akron women's basketball program history. Known as a sharpshooter, Alyssa Clay has knocked down 115 three-pointers and owns a .359 shooting percentage from long range in her career which ranks tied for ninth and fourth overall in program history.

Given the keys to the offense as a freshman, Edmonds went on to become the 18th player in program history to score 1,000 career points, has tallied 384 assists, and 202 steals. In program history, Edmonds ranks fourth in career assists and second in career steals while tallying the eighth-most assists in a single season (125) as a sophomore.

Haliegh Reinoehl became the 19th player in program history to score 1,000 career points and her 906 career rebounds ranks third all-time in Zips history.

Clean Sweep
Akron swept the regular-season series against three opponents in 2019-20 including Eastern Michigan, Miami, and Bowling Green. It was the first time since 2016 that the Zips swept Miami and Eastern Michigan, while UA swept the Falcons for the second straight season and has won four straight vs. BG.

Up Next
The winner between No. 8 Akron and No. 9 Toledo advances to the quarterfinal round of the 2020 Mid-American Conference Tournament at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Wednesday, March. 11. The winner between N.8/No.9 is slated to take on No. 1 Central Michigan at noon.