AKRON, OHIO – Sophomore Daniel Utomi scored 23 points and pulled down seven rebounds as the Akron Zips Mississippi Valley State 81-63 Saturday afternoon at Rhodes Arena.
UA had little trouble in defeating the Delta Devils, improving to 6-2 overall and 5-0 at home .
“We played well in the . . .
Akron had five players in double figures. Utomi’s 23 led all scorers in the contest. Graduate Malcolm Divivier had 14 with seven assists. Junior Jimond Ivey and sophomore Emmanuel Olojapoke each had 11, with Olajopoke setting career highs with nine boards and six blocked shots. Freshman Torrey Patton came off the bench to score 10.
The Blue and Gold lead reached 20 points again on two other occasions and they went into halftime with a decisive 42-23 advantage. Akron connected on 14-of-26 from the field (53.8%) and also held a 21-12 rebound edge.
Mississippi Valley State, a Southwestern Athletic Conference member, tallied seven of the first nine points, getting it down to 12 points (44-32) with 15:36 remaining on a steal and a layup by Devante Creighton
That would be as close as the Delta Devils would get for the remainder of the game.
UA started slowly in the second half. However after the run by MVSU, Akron regained control pushing out the lead out to 23 points on three occasions before winning by 18.
The Zips now head to Hawaii and the Diamond Head Classic. Their first game comes against Southern California (5-3) starting on December 22.
RSS Feed