AKRON, OHIO – Senior Deriyus Williams hit a three-pointer from the top of the key with 4.1 seconds remaining to give the Akron Zips a come-from-behind 59-58 victory over the Eastern Michigan Eagles Saturday afternoon at Rhodes Arena.
The victory ended . . .
This time, the outcome was much closer. It was the Zips third consecutive game in which outcome was decided on a last possession game. Akron lost the previous two -- at home to Buffalo and on the road at Kent State.
“I thought they outplayed us at both ends of the floor. They deserved to victory.” Zips head coach John Groce said. “They played really well. A great job by our bench today.”
Junior Tyler Cheese led all scorers in the contest with 21 points with three rebounds and three assists, Williams added 10 with three caroms.
Eastern Michigan (12-11, 2-8 MAC) had a chance to win the game. It moved the ball up the court and tried to get a shot off in the final seconds, but that attempt was blocked by Channel Banks to secure the Zips victory.
Eastern's loss ended the Eagles two-game winning streak.
Redshirt junior Ty Groce led the Green and White with 15 points. Fifth-year senior Boubcar Toure added 14 with 10 rebounds and Darion Spotsville contributed 13 points.
Early action suggested anything but a close game or Eagles loss.
The visitors shot 5-of-8 from the field and opened a 17-2 lead at the 10:22 mark when Groce, who scored 13 points in the opening half, connected on an and-one 3-point play..
Slowly but steadily, UA worked its way back. Much of the progress came at the charity stripe.. In the first half, Akron hit 11-of-15 from the line.
The Eagles scored six of the last eight points of the period and went into halftime with a 28-25 lead.
As bad as the Zips shot from the field (7-for-30, 23.3 percent and 0-for-14 threes), UA was lucky to be trailing by three.
The Zips came out storming at the beginning of the second half. Cheese got the team’s first three from the right arc and two minutes later,knocked down a three from the left arc to give the home team its first lead since Channel Banks’ opening layup.
The rest of the way, it was a defensive battle, with both teams trading the lead in a contest that saw 10 lead changes -- nine of them coming in the second half.
EMU owned a 51-49 edge at the 5:08 mark when Noah Morgan hit six straight free throws to give the Eagles a 55-49 lead with 1:03 remaining.
Cheese hit a three from the left arc at 55.3 to close the deficit to three, 55-52.
Cristen Jackson who was held to single digit scoring for just the fourth time this season, then made a pair of free throws to get the Zips again within three 57-54 at the 41.6 mark.
The junior followed with a layup with 21 seconds remaining to make the score 57-56.
Spotsville was fouled by Cheese after the basket sending him to the free throw line. The Junior made the first three throw and missed the second.
It was EMU’s final point of the game, but Akron still had three more to use. Cristen Jackson got him the ball to Williams, who connected on his game-winning trey.
NOTES:
● UA gets the victory despite shootint 18-of-52 from the field over the 40 minutes. The Zips did hit 11-of-22 from the floor in the second half. EMU was 19-of-38 for the game also was 50 percent (10-of-20) in the second half
● Akron finished 17-of-21 at the free throw line and EMU was 18-of-38.
● The Eagles won the rebound battle 36-32 . The game had seven ties along with the 10 lead changes
● UA registered 13 assists to 7 for the visitors and had 11 points off the bench nine coming from Reece.
● Both teams return to action on Tuesday with the Zips hosting Eastern Division Bowling Green while the Eagles travel to Central Michigan to battle Chippewas.