|
AKRON, OH – After a loss to the Eastern Michigan Eagles Monday night, Akron Zips head coach Keith Dambrot said he let his players know how he felt about the game and said he was going to see what they were made of.His charges responded emphatically with a 90-76 win over the Northern Illinois Wednesday night before 2,591 fans at Rhodes Arena
Akron (16-7,5-3 MAC) concluded a three-games in five days home stretch at 2-1 and a ended two-game losing streak to the Huskies by scoring a season-high 90 points while shooting 50 percent from the field. It was the fifth time this season UA has shot over 50 percent from the field.
The 90 points, meanwhile, were the most by Akron in a regular-season game since December 8, 2007 against North Carolina Central (96-49).
“We played pretty good tonight against a team that has a lot of talent” Dambrot said after the game. “The ball went in the basket tonight, and it didn’t go in the basket the other night”
Northern Illinois (8-13, 4-5 MAC) will try to put its trip to Northwest Ohio behind it. Before falling to Akron, the Huskies lost by 30 points Monday at Kent State.
“I’m proud of our guys tonight. They rallied themselves and they deserve it” Dambrot said.
Senior guard Darryl Roberts came off the bench to lead all scorers with 18 points, going 7-fof-11 from the field, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range. In addition he led the Zips with a career best eight rebounds
“Tonight was the biggest game of the year for us” Roberts said. “We did not want to lose two consecutive games at home. We came out to make a point that we were not going to lose tonight.”
Roberts was one of four Akron players in double figures. Chris McKnight had 16 points, Anthony ‘Humpty’ Hitchens added 15, and Brett McKnight scored 11.
“I had not played well the last five games, so it was a point of emphasis that I had to come out strong tonight” Roberts said. “We weren’t doing any of the small things right, but we made sure to come out tonight and do that”
Hitchens, a sophomore, returned to action after being suspended, along with reserve Alex Sullivan, for the EMU game for violating a team rule.
Xavier Silas, who entered the game second in the MAC in scoring at 20.2 points per game, led NIU with 15 points. Joining him in double figures were Derion ‘Jake’ Anderson, Tony Nixon, and Sean Kowal – all with 12 points.
After the Huskies took a three-point lead on a conventional 3-point play by Michael Fakaude, 3-2, the Zips took control of the contest as they went on a 10-2 run to open a 12-5 lead at the 15:01 mark on a right win jumper by Nikola Cvetinovic.
It was a lead UA would not relinquish for the remainder of the contest.
In fact, the closest the Huskies would get for the rest of the game was four points 16-12 at the 9:57 mark on a Silas layup.
Silas, a junior from Austin, Texas who transferred to Northern Illinois from Colorado when Ricardo Patton became head coach, struggled in the first 20 minutes, scoring just four points on 1-for-9 from the field.
“That was one of our keys tonight” Roberts said. “Jimmy Conyers was guarding him tonight, and he did a great job.”
Akron then outscored NIU 23-8 the final 6:34 of the half and went into halftime with a 19-point advantage (46-27), capped by Roberts’ fade away jumper as time expired.
For the visitors from DeKalb, the game had the feeling of the movie “Groundhog Day.” As on Monday night at Kent State, they opened an early lead only to see the Golden Flashes take control late in the first half and then finish them off early in the second period.
The second half was really no contest as the Zips lead never fell below double-digits. Their largest lead of the game came with 5:03 remaining, 86-59, as Hitchens converted a layup.
The Huskies did finish the game with a 15-4 run, but by that time Dambrot had his bench in the game.
One of the positive signs again for Akron was free throw shooting,. The charity stripe has been a Achilles heel for this team virtually the entire season and the Zips ranked near the bottom of the conference in that statistic. Wednesday night against the Huskies, Akron went 18-for-23.
The Zips now go into a stretch in which they play four of their next five on the road, beginning Saturday afternoon at Ball State. Northern Illinois looks to end its losing streak on Saturday at home against Miami.
NOTES: The game was the 26th lifetime meeting between the two schools with Akron holding an 18-8 advantage…The win was Keith Dambrot’s first against NIU head man Ricardo Patton and Dambrot is 3-3 lifetime against the Huskies…Akron is 10-2 at home in its last 12 games against MAC competition.
|
