 Keith Dambrot's Zips welcome BG for a first-place showdown
Bowling Green (16-11, 9-4 MAC) at Akron (18-10, 9-4 MAC)
Noon (FS Ohio) • Bowling Green leads series 23-18
• First place in the MAC’s East Division will be on the line on Sunday, when Akron welcomes co-division leader Bowling Green to Rhodes Arena for a noon EST match up to be televised regionally on FSN Ohio...The Zips come off a gutsy 62-57 win at Buffalo on Thursday, which gave them their ninth victory in 11 outings. UA has won five in a row at home... UA converted nine of 13 free throws in the final five minutes to hang on for a 62-57 victory at Buffalo on Thursday and win in its third-straight visit to Alumni Arena. The Zips led by as many as 14 points (30-16) in the first half, but the Bulls closed to within 30-25 at the half. The two teams combined for 41 turnovers (21 by Akron, one shy of tying a season-high)... The Zips’ scoring offense (67.0 ppg) ranks second in the MAC, while its scoring defense (59.4 ppg) is listed third in the league and 16th nationally. The squad’s +7.6 scoring margin is first in the league and 53rd in the nation. At home (12 games), Akron allows 54.0 ppg and averages 67.5 ppg...The Falcons are 5-7 in away games, but 5-1 in league play on the road... Senior Nate Miller became the 37th player in program history to score 1,000 points with 22 points and 13 rebounds against Canisius and he has scored in double-figures in 10 of the past 12 contests. He leads the Mid-American Conference in steals, has three double-doubles in the past seven games, and is averaging 15.4 points and 9.1 rebounds over the past eight games, while shooting 51 percent from the field and picking up 18 steals.
Buffalo (17-9, 9-4 MAC) at Ohio (14-13, 7-6 MAC)
Noon (ESPNU) • Ohio leads series 20-5
• Buffalo will play at Ohio on Sunday afternoon looking to remain in first place in the MAC East Division. The Bulls are coming off a 62-57 loss to Akron on Thursday. UB was led by Rodney Pierce who scored 20 points... The Bulls are looking for its first win at Ohio’s Convocation Center and also its first regular season sweep of the Bobcats... UB opponents have shot better than 50 percent from the field in each of the last three games... With 17 wins on the season, Buffalo has now won 17 or more games in four of the last six seasons. That is quite a departure from when UB first joined the conference in 1998. In the first six seasons as a member of the MAC, the Bulls had a double-digit win total only once...Ohio is off a 75-56 win over Miami on Thursday...The Bobcats are led by Jerome Tillman who is averaging 18.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game... Heading into Sunday afternoon’s tilt with Buffalo, the Bobcats own an 11-1 record on their home court this season, good for a share of the eighth-best single-season home record in school history. A win over the Bulls would move the Green & White to 12-1 at The Convo this season, which would tie for the sixth-best home season the program has seen... Senior guard Michael Allen has chalked up 43 assists and just 15 turnovers in the Bobcats’ last eight games. Allen has also scored in double figures in four of the team’s last five outings, shooting better than 50 percent from the field in each of those performances
Kent State (16-12, 8-5 MAC) at Miami (15-11, 8-5 MAC)
2 p.m. • Miami leads series 82-41
• After having an eight game winning streak snapped on Thursday, Kent State returns to action at Miami on Sunday in another key MAC East Division match-up...The Golden Flashes are coming off a 67-66 loss at Bowling Green despite another profound shooting performance from senior guard Jordan Mincy. The MAC Defensive Player of the Year Candidate shot 7-11 from the field and 5-7 from three on his way to a team best 19 points... Kent State is shooting 77.2 percent from the foul line in the last five games...Kent State leads the MAC in points per game (69.1). The Golden Flashes have never finished first in the category in the 52-year history of the league....Miami has now lost three straight and four of five after a 75-56 loss at Ohio on Thursday. Michael Bramos, who had 16 points in the game, leads the team and ranks third in the MAC with 16.8 points this season... Bramos has surpassed the 20-point scoring plateau seven times this season and 21 times during his Miami career, most recently with a 24-point effort at Central Michigan (Feb. 10)... In his 19th season as a head coach, all with Mid-American Conference programs, Miami head coach Charlie Coles owns the third-most overall wins of any coach in MAC history and the second-most league wins all time. Coles boasts a 314-250 overall record and a 191-132 all-time MAC mark. He is just three MAC wins away from tying Bob Nichols’ league record for career conference wins of 194.
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