Xavier Castaneda/Men's Basketball | The University of Akron
Xavier Castaneda/Men's Basketball | The University of Akron
Another suffocating defensive performance by Akron resulted in a second straight road win as the Zips defeated Central Michigan 69-51 at McGuirk Arena on Tuesday night.
Akron had four players score in double figures as 8-of-12 players that played touched the scoring column. Senior guard Xavier Castaneda led the way with 13 points, five assists and four rebounds, while junior Sammy Hunter (12 points) scored double-digits for the third straight game.
Graduate Trendon Hankerson and junior Greg Tribble rounded out the top scorers with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Akron (12-6, 4-1 MAC) fell behind early as the Chippewas (7-11, 2-3 MAC) used a 7-0 run to start the game. Akron responded with defensive aggression, causing five turnovers by the 12-minute which allowed the visitors take a 13-10 advantage. Five minutes later, the score was tied 22-22 and the Zips held the Chippewas scoreless for four minutes and caused three additional turnovers that led to a 9-0 run. Akron held the Chippewas scoreless for over four minutes and closed out the half on a 14-4 run.
Junior Enrique Freeman scored four of his eight total points during that stretch as seven players touched the scoring column in the first half. Akron shot 52-percent from the floor with a pair of buckets coming from beyond the 3-point arc from Hunter and Hankerson. Akron went 8-of-11 from the charity stripe and led 36-26 at the break.
Freeman and Castaneda tabulated eight points each, while Hankerson and Johnson added five, Tribble and Hunter with four and freshman Amani Lyles registered a layup. Lyles finished the game with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field, including an old-fashioned 3-point play.
In the second half, the Zips picked up where they left off as Hunter buried a 3-pointer just nine seconds into the period. Akron outscored CMU 14-6 to extend the lead to 57-35 midway through the half and led by as many as 27 points (66-39). The Zips forced 10 second-half turnovers, pressuring the Chippewas into 18 turnovers for the game while registering seven steals. Freshman Nate Johnson recorded a team-best three steals and added five points and three rebounds.
Akron won the battle of the boards 37-32 as Freeman led the Zips with nine rebounds. The Zips finished the game shooting 41.8 percent from the field (25 of 55) and 30.8 percent from beyond the arc (8 of 26).
Jesse Zarzuela paced the Central Michigan offense with a game-high 20 points.
Original source can be found here
Alerts Sign-up