No. 4 Zips Battle No. Bulls at 2022 MAC Tournament

No. 4 Zips Battle No. Bulls at 2022 MAC Tournament
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Game 31 Notes: No. 4 Akron vs No. 5 Buffalo (PDF)

2022 Mid-American Conference Tournament
No. 4 Akron Zips (21-9, 14-6 MAC) vs No. 5 Buffalo Bulls (19-10, 13-6 MAC)
Thursday, March 10 • Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse • Cleveland, Ohio • 1:30 PM • ESPN+

Akron Head Coach
John Groce (Taylor '94)
Career Record: 273-190 (14th Season)
Record at Akron: 91-58 (5th Season)
MAC Record at Akron: 54-38 (5th Season)
Overall MAC Record: 88-68 (at Ohio and Akron)

Buffalo Bulls Head Coach
Jim Whitesell (Luther '82)
Overall Record: 443-331 (27th Season)
Record at UB: 55-31 (3rd Season)
MAC Record: 36-18 (3rd Season)

All-Time Series
Akron Leads: 36-33 Groce vs. Buffalo: 2-8 (7-12 Overall)
Last Meeting: Akron 88, Buffalo 76 at James A. Rhodes Arena on Jan. 1, 2022
First Meeting: Akron 84, Buffalo 74 in Akron 1954-55 season
MAC Tournament: Buffalo Leads: 5-1

Broadcast
TV: ESPN3 – Michael Reghi (PxP), Murry Bartow (Analyst) Dannie Rogers (Sideline)
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 fourth-seeded Akron Zips open 2022 MAC Tournament against the fifth-seeded Buffalo Bulls on Thursday, March 10 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. Tip-off for the quarterfinal game is scheduled for approximately 1:30 p.m. on ESPN+. The Zips' radio broadcast will air on the Akron 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. Fans can also follow the action on GoZips.com via Live Stats.

The Akron-Buffalo Series
Thursday's game marks the 70th meeting in series history between Akron and Buffalo, and 20th meeting for a Groce coached squad, 11th at Akron. Akron holds an all-time 36-33 series advantage while Groce is 7-12 overall and 2-8 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 six times in postseason play with Buffalo holding a 5-1 edge.

Akron claimed the lone meeting this season on New Year's Day after trailing by as many as 14 points and won by 12 points (88-76). Buffalo claimed the last meeting at the MAC Tournament 81-74 in overtime to advance to the MAC Tournament finals. The Zips dropped the only regular season meeting in 2021 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 13 meetings.

Scouting the Bulls
Buffalo enters the MAC Tournament with two straight setbacks after winning nine consecutive games to finish the regular season with a 19-10 overall mark and 13-6 in the MAC. The Bulls average 80.3 points per outing on 45.7 percent shooting from the floor and a 34.3 percent effort from beyond the 3-point arc, draining 8.6 triples a game. The Bulls are 9-6 on the road, 1-1 at neutral sites and 9-3 at home this season.

Buffalo has three players scoring in double figures and one player just under double-digits as Jeenathan Williams leads the squad in scoring with 19.2 points per game on 49.2 percent shooting from the floor and 45.0 from deep with a team-best 58 made 3-pointers. He is second on the glass with 5.0 rebounds per game.

Ronaldo Segu follows with 15.2 points per game and a second-best 47 triples while shooting 43.9 percent shooting from deep. He adds a team-high 151 assists.

Josh Mballa leads the team in five statistical categories, pacing the squad in shooting percentage (.498), free throws (85-of-131), rebounds (238), steals (32) and blocked shots (24) while scoring a third-best 13.3 points per night. Maceo Jack adds 9.4 points per night and buried a third-best 42 long-distance strikes while shooting at a 31.8 percent clip from deep.

Defensively, Buffalo allows its opponents to score 72.3 points per game on 41.5 percent shooting from the floor and 33.0 percent from 3-point range, allowing only 6.3 long distance strikes per night. The Bulls have caused 138 turnovers (12.5 to/g) with 78 steals (7.1 stl/g). The Bulls outrebounds the opponent by a +7.6 margin, allowing the opponent to grab 397 total boards (36.1 rebs/g) compared to the 481 total rebounds secured by the Bulls (43.7 rebs/g).

Zips in the MAC Tournament
Akron is 31-20 all-time in the MAC Tournament, 23-9 in its last 32 tournament games. The Zips have won at least one game in the MAC Tournament every year since the 2004-05 season and set an unprecedented 14-of-16 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 25-14 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Akron is 7-6 in opening round games, 1-0 second round, 11-4 in the quarterfinals, 9-4 semifinals, and 3-6 in title games.

Up Next
The fourth-seeded Akron Zips look to advance to the semifinal of the 2022 MAC Tournament on Friday, March 11 at approximately 5 p.m. at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland on ESPN+. Fans can also follow the action on Akron Sports Radio Network on WHLO 640 AM with Dave Skoczen (PxP) and Joe Dunn (analyst) or live stats on GoZips.com.

The University of Akron Athletics

No. 4 Zips Battle No. Bulls at 2022 MAC Tournament

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