 AKRON 88, YOUNGSTOWN STATE 62
of 2,408,
Akron (6-5) moved back over the .500 mark winning its 13th consecutive home game dating back to last season (5-0 so far in 2011-12). In the wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Florida A&M, and YSU their average margin of victory was 22 points.
“It was a scary game.” Zips head coach Keith Dambrot said after the game. “They have that outside shot, meaning they are never out of a game and you are not out of a game. In the end, we had more depth than they did.”
Sophomore Demetrius Treadwell led five UA players in double figures, tying a career high with 15 points and six rebounds coming off the bench.
Fifth-year senior F Nikola Cvetinovic had 14 points, seven boards and three assists. Junior forward Chaucey Gilliam added 12 and three steals while Sophomore guards Brian Walsh and Alex Abreu each had 10.
Youngstown State (6-5, 1-1 Horizon) played its seventh in the last eight games away from the Beeghly Center, losing their third straight and fourth in the last five games.
“We did not play very well.” YSU head coach Jerry Slocum said afterward. “We are a tired basketball team. We have been on the road forever.”
Senior forward DeShaun Brooks led all scorers in the contest with 20 points, 16 of them coming in the first half, and was the lone YSU player in double figures. Sophomore guard Kendrick Perry next leading scorer with eight.
After the victory over Florida A&M on Saturday, Dambrot said that YSU would be a tough opponent for his team. Even though UA had won the last four meetings, last year the Penguins took the Zips to overtime before winning 91-84.
At the start of the game, he was absolutely right as the Penguins came out strong and took a three-point lead at the 14:52 mark, 12-9, when Brooks connected on a three-pointer from the right arc.
The Zips responded with eight straight points to take at 17-12 lead thanks to a pair of three-pointers from senior guard Brett McClanahan, who scored nine in the game after being held scoreless on Saturday against FAMU.
YSU used a slam dunk by junior forward Damien Eargle and a three-pointer from the right arc by sophomore guard Nate Perry to tie the game at 17-17 at the 12:12 mark.
With the contest tied at 19-19, UA went on a 17-3 run to take the lead for good 36-22, at the 4:10 mark when Cvetinovic went coast-to-coast for a layup. The basket was good, he was fouled, and he converted the three-point play.
The Penguins snapped back, scoring eight of the next nine points and closing the margin to seven at the 2:32 mark, 37-30, on two Eargle free throws. It would be the closest the visitors from the Mahoning Valley would get for the remainder of the game as four consecutive free
throws (two from Walsh and a pair from guard Quincy Diggs) pushed the lead back to double digits at intermission 41-30.
One of the strengths of the Zips in the early part of this season is the production from its bench. Treadwell is one of those players as he came off the bench to lead UA in first half scoring with nine points along with four rebounds.
“He is a cross between Romeo Travis and Jeremiah Wood” Dambrot said. “He is so explosive athletically. The best thing is he is just scratching the surface (of his talent and ability). He has a terrific mind and feel for the game.”
The sophomore from Euclid, Ohio was redshirted last season and is still making the transition from High School to Division I basketball. He started the season with a pair of double-digit games (13 against Valparaiso and 10 against Duquesne) at the 2K Sports sub-regional in
Northwest Indiana.
“I’m feeling more comfortable, game after game, the game is starting to slow down a bit” Treadwell said. After missing a couple of games via suspension, Treadwell has responded by scoring in double digits in three of the last four games, matching his a career high that he set at Cleveland State on December 10th .
The Zips effectively ended the game at the start of the second half, scoring the first seven points to make it 48-30 at the 17:06 mark when Gilliam banked in a layup off the glass.
UA’s lead then fluctuated for most of the second half between 19 and 27 points, with the game’s biggest differential coming in the final moments, 88-58, with 1:32 remaining. Gilliam hit a three from the right arc, UA got a steal on the inbound pass, and Gilliam scored on a
driving layup.
The busy home holidays continue for the Zips as they get back into action on Wednesday night when the Aggies of North Carolina A&T (MEAC) come to Rhodes Arena.
GAMEBOOK:
KEY MOMENT: Akron went into halftime with a 41-30 lead. They scored the first seven points of the second half to extend the lead to 18 at 48-30 and were never headed
PLAYER OF THE GAME: NIKOLA CVETINOVIC-AKRON. After leading his native Serbia to a gold medal at the World University Games in China, Cvetinovic struggled early in this his fifth and final season with the Zips. However in the last few games he is getting back to what Keith Dambrot called “The old Nikola”. He had 14 points with seven rebounds and two steals in the game.
KEY STAT OF THE GAME: 1) Zeke Marshall-Akron pulling down 11 rebounds while only scoring nine points and 2) Youngstown State guard Ashen Ward was held scoreless, missing all three shots he took. Coming into
the game, Ward was third on YSU in scoring averaging 9.2 per game
NOTES:
The game was the 86th lifetime meeting between the two schools with UA holding a decisive 56-30 edge winning the last six games (YSU’s last win in the series was December, 1994 at the Beeghly Center 69-53)…Akron finishes 2-2 against the Horizon League this season (win
over Detroit, losses at Valparaiso and Cleveland State)…Zeke Marshall-AKR 11 rebounds was a season high…Brian Walsh-AKR has scored in double figures in two of the last three games and four times this season…Demetrius Treadwell-AKR has scored in double digits in three of the last four games…Alex Abreu-AKR will have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee to repair a torn meniscus…The 26-point margin of victory was UA’s second biggest of the season (30 over Hiram on November 12th was the largest)…Youngstown State played their third straight MAC opponent on the road (at Buffalo and at Toledo) losing all of them…DeShaun Brooks-YSU hit double digits for the fourth time in the last six games reaching the 20-point plateau for the second time this season (24 at Detroit)…Ashen Ward-YSU has scored just one point in the last two games…In its program’s history, YSU has 998 career victories.
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