Akron Outlasts Bowling Green for First Road Win, 74-70

Tuesday, January 10

Bowling Green, OH

7 PM

University of Akron

10-6,2-1MAC

Bowling Green

8-8,2-1MAC

Akron

Bowling Green

Akron Outlasts Bowling Green for First Road Win, 74-70

January 10 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score PDF

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio –The Akron Zips received a total team effort for their first road win of the season, defeating Bowling Green 74-70 at the Stroh Center on Tuesday evening.

The Zips (10-6, 2-1) battled the Falcons (8-8, 2-1) to the final seconds oof regulation behind a third-straight double-double from junior Enrique Freeman (Cleveland, Ohio), a career performance by junior Sammy Hunter (Nassau, Bahamas), the return of Xavier Castaneda (Chicago, Ill.) and a pair of clutch free throws by Nate Johnson (Liberty Twp., Ohio) to ultimately hand Bowling Green its first Mid-American Conference loss.

Freeman recorded his ninth double-double of the season, scoring 21 points and grabbing 16 rebounds, with 15 of those points and 11 rebounds coming in the second half. The reining MAC Player of the Week added a 90-percent (9-of-10) shooting performance from the free throw line. Hunter followed with a career-high 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor, including a career-best 4-of-6 from beyond the 3-point arc. He kept the Zips in the game throughout the first 20-minutes, knocking down big shot after big shot.

The Zips trailed by as many as nine points (33-24) in the first half, but Akron used three straight stops to spark a 9-0 run to knot the game at 33 points apiece. Senior Trendon Hankerson (Novi, Mich.) started the run with a blocked shot and junior Greg Tribble (Cincinnati, Ohio) turn the stop into two points at the other end of the floor. On the ensuing play, Castaneda stripped BG's Samari Curtis and found Hunter for a transition three, while Tribble recorded the next steal and led Castaneda to a fastbreak layin. At halftime the game was tied 36-36.

Castaneda contributed eight points in the first frame, and followed with eight in the second half for a 16-point returning performance. He scored six crucial points with an old-fashioned 3-point play at 8:55 to tie the game (58-58) and a 3-pointer with the shot clock expiring with 2:08 left to play for what proved to be the Zips final lead (71-68).

The Falcons pulled within one-point (71-70) before Freeman split a pair of free throws to give Akron a two-point advantage. On the other end of the floor, Johnson grabbed a defensive rebound, causing the home team to foul, and buried the pair of bonus buckets to secure the win with less than a second on the clock.

Bowling Green shot 49.1 percent from the field (26-of-53) and 49.1 percent (10-of-21) from beyond the arc in a game that featured 16 lead changes and eight tied scores. Leon Ayers led the Falcons with 19 points, while Kaden Metheny and Rashaun Agee added 16 and 11 points, respectively.

Akron edged the Falcons on the glass 35-33 and won the turnover battle 9-12 with seven steals, two steals each from Hankerson, Tribble and Hunter.

Akron returns to James A. Rhodes Arena for a nationally televised game on ESPNU as the Zips host Eastern Michigan on Friday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m.