By EVAN MEYER
AKRON, OHIO – Senior Isaiah Johnson hit a jumper from the left wing with two-tenths of a second remaining in regulation to help the Akron Zips defeat the Ball State Cardinals 65-63 Tuesday night at Rhodes Arena.
With the victory, Akron (20-4, 9-1 MAC) reached the 20-win plateau for the 12th consecutive season. In addition, UA extended its home winning streak to 29 games, the second longest current streak in Division I.
“A lot of credit . . .
AKRON, OHIO – Senior Isaiah Johnson hit a jumper from the left wing with two-tenths of a second remaining in regulation to help the Akron Zips defeat the Ball State Cardinals 65-63 Tuesday night at Rhodes Arena.
With the victory, Akron (20-4, 9-1 MAC) reached the 20-win plateau for the 12th consecutive season. In addition, UA extended its home winning streak to 29 games, the second longest current streak in Division I.
“A lot of credit . . .
. . . to them tonight.” Zips head coach Keith Dambrot said. “It was a tough night and they are a good team.”
Johnson led all scorers in the game with 20 points while junion Jimmond Ivey was the other Zips player in double figures with 10.
Ball State (15-9, 6-5) came into the game tied with Northern Illinois atop the Mid-American Conference Western Division and suffered its second consecutive setback after a three-game winning streak and a stretch of six wins in the previous seven.
“I thought our guys did a lot of good things tonight.” BSU head man James Whitford said. It is another game that we can play with the best in this conference. Our problem is to play like this consistently”
Senior Franko House led the Cardinals with 18 points. Fellow senior Ryan Weber added 16 while junior Sean Sellers had 11.
Like so many games, Tuesday’s contest was a game of spurts.
The home team opened a pair of seven point leads, the last being 17-10 at the 10:45 mark on a layup by Johnson. The Cards then responded with 10 unanswered points to take a 22-19 advantage when junior reserve Jeremie Tyler hit both ends of a one-and-one free throw at the 5;15 mark.
Both teams then exchanged the lead before UA used an Ivey 3-pointer at 1:15 to take a 30-28 advantage to the locker room.
Neither team shot the ball well from the field in the opening 20 minutes, with the Zips hitting just 13-of-33 (39.4%). Surprisingly, they were just 3-of-13 from three-point range. BSU was only 9-of-22 from the floor. However, they stayed in the game thanks to being perfect from the free throw line (7-for-7).
In the second half, the visitors from Muncie used an 8-2 run to grab a 36-32 lead on a layuo by Trey Moses at the 16:45 mark. It was then the Zips turn to respond, and they did with a 15-2 run, opening their largest lead of the game, 47-38, when junior Antino Jackson split a pair of free throws.
BSU kept the game close thanks to its ability to hit from beyond the arc. The main players in that were Weber, a transfer from Youngstown State, who went 4-of-7 and Sellers who was 3-of-6.
The Cardinals made their final push down the stretch, using a 7-2 flurry to take a 63-62 lead with 7.2 seconds remaining when House, who scored 11 of his points in the second half, tallied on a layup off the backboard.
Inbound plays would play a big part over the final few seconds.
Akron’s Antino Jackson threw a long baseball pass to Johnson, who was fouled with 2.2 seconds remaining. The senior split the pair of free throws tying the score 63-63.
Ball State’s Weber also tried a long pass down the court. Unfortunately for BSU, his pass traveled the length of the court but went completely out of bounds. That gave the ball to the Zips with no time elapsed on the clock.
When asked about the final moments, Whitford said “It was two plays at the end, our transition defense on Johnson and then at the end. We tried to run a play and we did not get the play set up as the official gave us the ball much earlier than we wanted.”
Given a final possession by the Ball State goal, junior point guard Noah Robotham found Johnson all alone just inside the foul line extended. He calmly connected on the jumper to give UA the victory – its 14th straight over the Cardinals.
Johnson said of his winning shot “When I think too much, I mess up, so all I did was focus on what I have been doing.”
It was the second consecutive home game that Johnson supplied the winning points. In a 71-70 win over Buffalo on January 28th , he connected on a free throw in the final seconds to secure a victory.
When asked about the final play, Dambrot said “I was just going to throw the ball into Dog (Johnson’s nickname is Big Dog) until one of my assistants talked me out of it because he is a 50 percent free throw shooter.”
The Zips picked up the win despite a poor shooting performance, going 26-of-61 from the field (42.6%) and just 5-of-23 from beyond the arc. BSU was not much better as the Cardinals were just 22-of-51 from the floor (43.1%) . UA won the battle of the boards 33-30, with 11 of them coming on the offensive end. They led to 10 second chance points.
Both teams are back in action over the weekend, the Zips head to Eastern Michigan to face the Eagles for the second time this season while the Cards entertain Ohio at Worthen Arena.
Johnson led all scorers in the game with 20 points while junion Jimmond Ivey was the other Zips player in double figures with 10.
Ball State (15-9, 6-5) came into the game tied with Northern Illinois atop the Mid-American Conference Western Division and suffered its second consecutive setback after a three-game winning streak and a stretch of six wins in the previous seven.
“I thought our guys did a lot of good things tonight.” BSU head man James Whitford said. It is another game that we can play with the best in this conference. Our problem is to play like this consistently”
Senior Franko House led the Cardinals with 18 points. Fellow senior Ryan Weber added 16 while junior Sean Sellers had 11.
Like so many games, Tuesday’s contest was a game of spurts.
The home team opened a pair of seven point leads, the last being 17-10 at the 10:45 mark on a layup by Johnson. The Cards then responded with 10 unanswered points to take a 22-19 advantage when junior reserve Jeremie Tyler hit both ends of a one-and-one free throw at the 5;15 mark.
Both teams then exchanged the lead before UA used an Ivey 3-pointer at 1:15 to take a 30-28 advantage to the locker room.
Neither team shot the ball well from the field in the opening 20 minutes, with the Zips hitting just 13-of-33 (39.4%). Surprisingly, they were just 3-of-13 from three-point range. BSU was only 9-of-22 from the floor. However, they stayed in the game thanks to being perfect from the free throw line (7-for-7).
In the second half, the visitors from Muncie used an 8-2 run to grab a 36-32 lead on a layuo by Trey Moses at the 16:45 mark. It was then the Zips turn to respond, and they did with a 15-2 run, opening their largest lead of the game, 47-38, when junior Antino Jackson split a pair of free throws.
BSU kept the game close thanks to its ability to hit from beyond the arc. The main players in that were Weber, a transfer from Youngstown State, who went 4-of-7 and Sellers who was 3-of-6.
The Cardinals made their final push down the stretch, using a 7-2 flurry to take a 63-62 lead with 7.2 seconds remaining when House, who scored 11 of his points in the second half, tallied on a layup off the backboard.
Inbound plays would play a big part over the final few seconds.
Akron’s Antino Jackson threw a long baseball pass to Johnson, who was fouled with 2.2 seconds remaining. The senior split the pair of free throws tying the score 63-63.
Ball State’s Weber also tried a long pass down the court. Unfortunately for BSU, his pass traveled the length of the court but went completely out of bounds. That gave the ball to the Zips with no time elapsed on the clock.
When asked about the final moments, Whitford said “It was two plays at the end, our transition defense on Johnson and then at the end. We tried to run a play and we did not get the play set up as the official gave us the ball much earlier than we wanted.”
Given a final possession by the Ball State goal, junior point guard Noah Robotham found Johnson all alone just inside the foul line extended. He calmly connected on the jumper to give UA the victory – its 14th straight over the Cardinals.
Johnson said of his winning shot “When I think too much, I mess up, so all I did was focus on what I have been doing.”
It was the second consecutive home game that Johnson supplied the winning points. In a 71-70 win over Buffalo on January 28th , he connected on a free throw in the final seconds to secure a victory.
When asked about the final play, Dambrot said “I was just going to throw the ball into Dog (Johnson’s nickname is Big Dog) until one of my assistants talked me out of it because he is a 50 percent free throw shooter.”
The Zips picked up the win despite a poor shooting performance, going 26-of-61 from the field (42.6%) and just 5-of-23 from beyond the arc. BSU was not much better as the Cardinals were just 22-of-51 from the floor (43.1%) . UA won the battle of the boards 33-30, with 11 of them coming on the offensive end. They led to 10 second chance points.
Both teams are back in action over the weekend, the Zips head to Eastern Michigan to face the Eagles for the second time this season while the Cards entertain Ohio at Worthen Arena.
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