MAC Tournament: No. 3 Akron Zips to Face No. 2 Buffalo in Semifinal

GAME PREVIEW: No. 3 Akron vs No. 2 Buffalo, Friday, March 12 at 7 PM | Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse | CBSSN

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MAC Tournament: No. 3 Akron Zips to Face No. 2 Buffalo in Semifinal

No. 3 Akron Zips (15-7, 12-6 MAC) vs No. 2 Buffalo (15-7, 12-5 MAC)
Friday, March 12 • Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse •Cleveland, Ohio • 7:00 p.m. • CBS Sports Network

AKRON HEAD COACH
John Groce (Taylor '94)
Career Record: 250-179 (13th Season)
Record at Akron: 70-48 (4th Season)
MAC Record at Akron: 40-32 (4th Season)
Overall MAC Record: 74-62 (at Ohio and Akron)

BOWLING GREEN HEAD COACH
Jim Whitesell (Luther '82)
Overall Record: 421-320 (26th Season)
Record at UB: 35-19 (2nd Season)
MAC Record: 23-12 (2nd Season)

ALL-TIME SERIES
Akron Leads: 35-32 - Groce vs. Buffalo: 1-7 (6-11 Overall)
Last Meeting: Buffalo 80, Akron 78 at Alumni Arena on March 2, 2021
First Meeting: Akron 84, Buffalo 74 in Akron 1954-55 season
MAC Tournament: Buffalo Leads: 4-1

BROADCASTS
TV/Video: CBSSN: Alex Del Barrio (PxP) and Steve Wolf (Analyst)
Radio: Akron Sports Network - Dave Skoczen (PxP), Joe Dunn (Analyst)
WHLO 640 AM (flagship), iHeart Radio, TuneIn.com/Akron Zips
Live Stats: GoZips.com/Schedule - Live Stats

WHAT'S AHEAD
The Akron Zips defeated No. 6 Bowling Green in the quarterfinal round of the 2021 Mid-American Conference Tournament and will lineup against the No. 2 seed, Buffalo on Friday night at approximately 7 p.m. at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network. The Zips are 9-3 all-time in the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament and 25-13 in Cleveland.

The Zips' radio broadcast will air on the Akron-IMG Sports Network WHLO 640 AM with Dave Skoczen and Joe Dunn calling the action. The pregame show starts 30 minutes prior to the contest. The free audio stream is available at iHeart Radio and TuneIn.com/Akron Zips. Fans can also follow the action on GoZips.com via Live Stats.

THE AKRON-BUFFALO SERIES
Friday's game marks the 68th meeting in series history between Akron and Buffalo, and 18th meeting for a Groce coached squad, ninth at Akron. Akron holds an all-time 35-32 series advantage while Groce is 6-11 overall and 1-7 at Akron. In three of those five setbacks, the Zips led at halftime and took a one possession game to the final minutes. The Zips and the Bulls have met four times in postseason play with Buffalo holding a 3-1 edge.

The Zips dropped the only meeting with the Bulls this season as Buffalo led by as many as 22 points and the Zips battled back to a one possession game with Buffalo winning 80-78 at Alumni Arena. In 2019-20, Akron and UB split the series last season as Akron won at Alumni Arena, 86-73, and the Bulls posted a 77-74 win at the JAR on a 3-pointer with six seconds remaining in the game. The Bulls won three games against the Zips -n 2018-19, including an 82-46 win in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament. The No. 21/22 ranked Bulls defeated the Zips at Alumni Arena (77-64) and started the series sweep when the No. 24/25 ranked Bulls defeated Akron at James A. Rhodes Arena 76-70 on Feb. 12. The Bulls swept the 2016-17 season's series with an 87-65 win in Akron and an 80-68 win in Buffalo. The Zips swept the regular season series in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and have won five of the last 12 meetings.

SCOUTING THE BULLS
Buffalo enters the contest with an 15-7 overall record and 12-5 in MAC play and under second year head coach Jim Whitesell. The Bulls are riding a six-game winning streak and have won 9-of-the-last-10 games. Buffalo is 6-3 (5-3 MAC) at home, 5-3 (5-2 MAC) on the road and 2-1 in neutral site games.

Buffalo has four players scoring in double figures in points, led by Jeenathan Williams with 17.4 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. He adds a third-best 53 assists and 21 steals with 10 blocked shots. Williams shoots 48.0 from the floor with 156 field goals with 28 coming from deep (.359). Josh Mballa follows with 15.5 points and a MAC-best 7.0 rebounds per game and 195 total boards. He is second in steals (21) and fourth in assists (39).

Jayvon Graves is third in scoring with 14.5 points per game. Graves has buried a second-best 32-of-112 from long distance (.286) and is shooting 41.8 percent from all areas of the court with 123 field goals. He is second in assists (87), third in rebounds (130, 5.9) and first in steals (34). Ronaldo Segu rounds out the double-digit scoring with 12.9 points per outing with a team-best 99 assists. He is the team-leader from beyond the 3-point arc with 98 triples and a 41.9 shooting percentage.

Defensively, Buffalo limits its opponents to 72.3 points per game on 41.1 percent shooting from the floor and 28.0 percent from 3-point range, allowing 5.9 long distance strikes per night. The Bulls caused 295 turnovers (13.9 to/g) with 181 steals (8.2 stl/g). Buffalo outrebounds the opponent by a +10.0 margin. The opponents snagged 777 (35.3) total boards compared to the 965 (43.9) total rebounds secured.

ZIPS IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT
Akron is 31-19 all-time in the MAC Tournament, 23-8 in its last 31 tournament games. The Zips have won at least one game in the MAC Tournament every year since the 2004-05 season and has advanced to the MAC Tournament title game in nine consecutive seasons with an unprecedented 13-of-14 semifinal appearances. The Zips' runs of the consecutive title game (7) and semifinal appearances (13) are the longest streaks in MAC history. The Zips are 25-13 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Akron is 7-6 in opening round games, 1-0 second round, 11-4 in the quarterfinals, 9-3 semifinals, and 3-6 in title games.

THE LAST MEETING
The Akron Zips fell behind by as many as 22 points in the second half against Buffalo and battled back to a one possession game, but fell on the road 80-78 to the Bulls on Tuesday afternoon.

Senior Loren Cristian Jackson (Chicago, Ill.) finished with a game-high 27 points, including 11 of the last 15 points and nine points in the final 35 seconds in a wild finish at Alumni Area.

The Zips (14-7, 12-6 MAC) used a series of runs starting at the 11:40 mark as senior Maishe Dailey (Beachwood, Ohio) buried a wing 3-pointer which sparked a 10-1 run by the Zips. Dailey's triple reduced Buffalo's largest lead of the game, 58-36. The Bulls (13-7, 11-5 MAC) split a pair of free throws and the Zips followed with seven unanswered points.

Junior Michael Wynn (Albany, N.Y.) followed with a triple, while Jackson added a layup and freshman Garvin Clarke (Euclid, Ohio) cashed in with two free throws, 59-46. After a Buffalo 3-pointer, Clarke connected with a layin and Buffalo pushed the lead back to 17 points, 65-48.

The Zips responded with an 11-2 scoring burst as sophomore Enrique Freeman (Cleveland, Ohio) pulled down an offensive rebound and finished with two points. Sophomore Mikal Dawson (Huntington, W.Va.) followed with an old-fashioned 3-point play, his second of the game, and freeman offered a dunk and a layin on consecutive possessions. Jackson capped the run with a layup after a Freeman defensive board, reducing the deficit to eight points, 67-59 with 5:45 left to play.

Again Buffalo pushed the lead back to double-digits (13 points), but the Zips rattled-off
another 8-1 attack as Wynn drove the lane and finished with a reverse layin. He added two more paint points and Jackson and Clark went back-to-back with layins. Akron trailed 73-67 with 1:38 showing on the clock.

Buffalo split two free throws and Jackson buried his first of three triples to finish the game, cutting the Bulls advantage to four, 74-70. The Zips were forced to foul. Buffalo made both free throws and Clarke buried two for the Zips before Jackson unleashed another triple.

With eight seconds left on the clock and the Zips down four, 79-75, Buffalos split two additional free throws and Jackson connected with the final bucket of the game from long distance, 80-78.

The bulls used a 10-0 run in the first half for a 25-15 advantage, and the Bulls by as many as 15 points before the Zips were able to cut into the lead, 36-21. Akron scored four quick points to cause a UB timeout 25-36. The bulls entered the final bucket of the half for a 39-25 halftime advantage.

The Zips finished the first half just 2-of-14 (.143) from deep and 10-of-32 (.313) from the floor and 3-of-4 (.750) from the free throw line. The Bulls were perfect from the charity stripe on five attempts and shot 15-of-36 (.417) from the field and 4-of-9 (.444) from deep.

Freeman recorded his fourth double-double of the season with a game-high 12 rebounds and 11 points, Wynn and Clarke set career-highs with 11 and 10, respectively.

Josh Mballa led the Bulls with 15 points and nine rebounds as four Bulls scored in double figures, including a double-double effort from Jayvon Graves with 13 points and 10 boards.

UP NEXT
The Akron Zips will look to advance to the MAC Championship game against the winner of the No. 1 Toledo and No. 5 Ohio on Saturday, March 13 at 7:30 PM at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on ESPN2

MAC Tournament: No. 3 Akron Zips to Face No. 2 Buffalo in Semifinal

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Players Mentioned

Garvin Clarke

Maishe Dailey

Mikal Dawson

Enrique Freeman

Loren Cristian Jackson

Michael Wynn

The University of Akron Athletics