CLEVELAND, OH -- Akron forced overtime with two late buckets, but the Buffalo Bulls quickly took control of the extra period to down the Zips 81-74 Friday at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
With their victory, Buffalo advances to Saturday's championship game, where UB will meet a hot Ohio team that took out No. 1 seed Toledo. The contest will start at 7:30 p.m. ET and be carried on ESPN2. It will be . . .
Jeenathan Williams led the way for Buffalo, which raised its record to 16-7 (12-5 MAC). The junior forard hit 10-of-14 shots overall, 3-of-4 treys and all three free throws. He was joined in double figures by Renaldo Segu (18 points), Josh Mballa (16 points, 20 rebounds) and Jayvon Graves (12 points).
Akron's Loren Cristian Jackson paced the Zips with 27 points. Enrique Freeman also reached double figures, scoring 11 points and finishing a double double with 14 rebounds.
Overall, the Zips hit 30-of-77 field goals (39.0%) and were 6-of-26 (23.1%) from long distance. Buffalo, meanwhile, sank 33-of-70 (47.1%) from the floor and 7-of-16 (43.8%) outside the arc. Both teams knocked down eight free throws, albeit Buffalo took 19 charity tosses and the Zips had nine chances. Led by Mballa's 20 caroms, UB owned a 50-40 rebounding advantage.
Akron (15-8, 12-6 MAC) took an early lead, but Mballa's layup at 15:32 put the Bulls in front 11-10. They managed to reach double digits on two occasions, but UA cut it in half (33-28) by intermission.
Both teams held leads in the second stanza, but Buffalo was in front 68-64 with 1:42 left. Tremble's layup at 0:44 made it a one score game, and Freeman provided a tying score on a basket with two ticks remaining.
When play resumed, UB reeled off seven straight points, capped off by Williams' trey. Despite five free throw misses by Akron, the Zips were unable to get closer than six points after that.