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The RedHawks and Zips split their regular season series, with Akron taking the second meeting in a 53-44 defensive struggle.

"You have to really understand basketball to appreciate our games against Miami," Akron coach Keith Dambrot said, adding, "Seventy-three (points) is usually two of our games against Miami."

Indeed, during the early minutes of Thursday's game with Miami, Akron missed eight straight field goal attempts and trailed 11-1 before Brett McClanahan hit a trey at 14:26.

Not only did it break the ice, the three-pointer was a sign of things to come. The Zips hit 6-of 13 (46.2 percent) from behind the arc before intermission and trailed 32-31 at the break.

MAC Player of the Year, Michael Bramos (24) is guarded by Akron's Mike Bardo (54) and Nate Linhart (33). Photo: Mike Smith

Filling in for injured Zip Anthony "Humpty" Hitchens, who was injured Tuesday against Toledo and played just four minutes in the first half against Miami, McNees drained four of  treys and was five of six from the field in the game's first 20 minutes.

Another promising development for Akron was it's work on the glass.  Although the halftime totals showed just one total rebound difference (UA 17, MU 16), the Zips corralled eight offensive caroms.

That trend continued in the second half as Akron first took the lead and then took control.

"The biggest thing that hurt us (was) that they had 19 offensive boards (for the game)," Miami coach Charlie Coles said. "That was unbelievable

"We got every rebound when it mattered - at both ends," said Dambrot, adding that he believed his squad (now 21-12, 10-6 MAC regular season) might be undefeated this season when winning the rebounding battle.

Akron took the lead early in the second half and there were two ties before the Zips scored six straight points in 46 seconds. Nikola Cvetinovic started it with a layup at 12:37. The freshman followed  with a steal before Chris McKnight threw down a dunk to make it a 47-41 Akron lead.

By the 4:58 mark, it was an 11-point Zips advantage. As the clocked ticked down, Miami was forced to foul.

Even when Akron missed, it frequently came up with another offensive rebound, moving Coles to muse the offensive rebounding stat simply had to be some kind of record.

McNees led Akron with 17 points. Joining him in double figures were Darryl Roberts (15), Cvetinovic (12), and Linhart (10).

The Zips were good on 23 of 60 field goal attempts (38 percent) for the game, but made 12 of 24 treys (50 percent) and 15 of 22 (68.2 percent) from the free throw line.

Akron also outscored Miami 18-10 in the paint and its bench bettered Miami's bench scoring 30-15.

"The bench has been huge for us all year," said Dambrot, who credited his team for being resilient when things looked bad in the opening minutes. "They never think they are out of it," he said.

MAC Player of the Year Michael Bramos led all scorers with 24 points, but the RedHawks had just one other player - Carl Richburg (12) - in double figures. Tyler Dierkers had seven points but just two boards after spending much of the day at the hospital where he was given intravneous treatment for an illness.

Miami (17-13, 10-6 MAC regular season) made 16 of 41 field goal attempts (39 percent) and was 8 for 22 (36. 4 percent) outside the arc.

"We got beat by a very superior team tonight," Coles said. "They defended. They moved the ball well. They scored inside. They scored outside .... When you think about it, they did about everything you could do, and I don't know if we did everything we could do."

According to Coles, Akron and Bowling Green, which meet tonight at 9:30 p.m., seem to be playing the best basketball at this time. "I like Akron's team. They are so well-rounded," he said.