 Jimmy Conyers led Akron with 17 points / Photo: Jeff Harwell
Senior Jimmy Conyers led a balanced scoring attack for Akron (7-4) with a career best 17 points and also led the Zips with eight rebounds.
Brett McKnight came off the bench to add 13 points along with a career best seven boards while Steve McNees had 12 and Nate Linhart another 10 as the Zips completed the 2008 portion of their home schedule with a 5-1 record.
“It was a perplexing performance but it wasn’t so perplexing either” Zips head coach Keith Dambrot said afterwards.
“It’s perplexing because the first five minutes we played really good defense and then we went bad. Then we played ten minutes of good defense and again we went bad….It is something we have to work on. We have shown so far this season we can play with people…We are so inconsistent and erratic right now” Dambrot remarked.
Dambrot speaks from recent experience.
Akron gave Dayton all they could handle before losing in the final moments 54-50 at home back on December 6th. Then in their last game at Virginia Commonwealth on December 17th the Zips had went through another bad stretch that allowed the Rams to open a big lead but before the Zips finally fell 73-69.
Tonight, however, the outcome favored the Zips.
The Terriers played this game without their leading scorer and rebounder, Kayode Ayeni, who suffered a foot injury in their last game against Albany.
Sophomore Ricky Cadell led four Saint Francis (3-8) players in double figures with 17 points sharing game-high honors with Conyers. Stefan Peruinicic added 15 (going 5-for-11 from three-point range). Nigel Byam had 13 and seven rebounds and Jamaal Womack came off the bench to add 10.
“I was very proud with the team’s effort. Not having our best player available as a scorer and rebounder against a team that is very very good,” Terriers head coach Brian Nash said after the game.
The home-standing Zips opened the contest scoring 10 of the game’s first 11 points and established a 29-16 lead at the 9:47 mark on a jumper by Jimmy Hitchens.
That’s when the Terriers got back into the game using the three-point shot.
St. Francis’ charge was led by Perunicic. The freshman from Serbia, one of the top three-point shooters in the Northeast Conference, connected on four three-pointers in the game’s first 20 minutes as Saint Francis closed to within six on two occasions. the last being 30-24 at the 6:59 mark on a free throw by Ricky Cadell.
After Akron pushed the lead back out to ten, 37-27 at the 5:20 mark on a Brett McKnight jumper, the Terriers went on a 12-2 run to tie the game for the first time at 39-39 on a jumper by Nigel Byam
The two teams then traded baskets before a Brett McKnight jumper with 10 seconds remaining gave the Zips a 43-41 lead at halftime.
Despite both teams coming off of a holiday lay-off, their shooting was surprisingly crisp. Akron hovered around 50 percent for the majority of the half slipping to 14-for-30 (46.7%) at halftime while Saint Francis shot 59.3% from the floor including 7-for-14 from three point range and came out firing in the second half.
At the start of the second half, the Terriers went on a 9-2 run to open their largest lead of the game 50-45 with 15:43 remaining on a three by Cadell.
The Zips then scored ten unanswered points to take the lead for good 55-50 on two free throws by Conyers.
Saint Francis went into a three and a half minute scoring drought during that Akron run.
“We fought back from being 13 points down to a five point lead 50-45 but then we went through a scoring drought, ” Nash added
The Terriers closed to within three on two occasions, the last being 57-54 with 9:26 remaining on a layup by Cadell.
But that would be the closest Saint Francis would get for the remainder of the game.
Akron then scored nine straight points to open its largest lead of the game 66-54 with 7:14 left with a Brett McKnight layup.
The Terriers, who were playing the first of two road games against Mid-American Conference opposition, just could not answer that last run by the Zips and Akron came away with the victory.
The Zips now embark on a three-game road trip ending the 2008 portion of their schedule at North Carolina-Greensboro then opening 2009 at Rhode Island before starting MAC play on January 10th at Miami
NOTES: The game was the sixth in the series lifetime but the first time since Akron moved into Division I back in 1980-81….Their last meeting was in 1976 at the Youngstown State Classic 64-62 Akron win…St. Francis will play the second of their MAC road trip at Ohio on Tuesday December 30…Akron 2-0 this season against the Northeast Conference (defeated Farleigh Dickinson at the Legends Classic 85-41) and 22-6 in their history…Akron went to the free throw line 34 times (made 26) season high in both games...Saint Francis is 3-12 lifetime against the Mid-American Conference
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