Ohio 85, Ball State 77
Akron 79, Western Michigan 68
Miami 85, Eastern Michigan 63
Bowling Green at Central Michigan - Postponed
Buffalo at Northern Illinois - Postponed
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TOLEDO, Ohio - Marreon Jackson exploded for a season-high 31 points Saturday afternoon to propel Toledo to a 76-74 victory over Kent State (7-4, 4-3 MAC) in Savage Arena.
The victory was the Rockets' second two-point win over the Golden Flashes this season and improved their record to 13-4 overall and 8-1 in Mid-American Conference action. Kent State,which had won four straight since losing to Toledo 84-82 back on Jan. 5, fell to 4-3 in MAC play (7-4 overall).
Jackson put Toledo ahead to stay when he buried a three-point field goal for a 72-69 advantage with 2:25 remaining. He later followed his own missed shot late on Toledo's final possession with a steal and layup with nine seconds left to put the Rockets ahead, 76-73. Kent State made one free throw and then had a chance to tie the score on an in-bounds play at the buzzer, but Michael Nuga's short jumper was off the mark.
"After I missed my shot I knew I had to make a play," Jackson said. "When I was getting back on defense I saw (KSU's Malique) Jacobs turn his head for a slight second and I was either going to foul him or get the steal."
Freshman Ryan Rollins and junior JT Shumate joined Jackson in double figures, finishing with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
Senior Michael Nuga led Kent State offensively with 19 points, while senior Danny Pippen tallied a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Tervell Beck hit 5-of-7 shots from the field on the way to 16 points.
The Rockets connected 49.2 percent from the field and hit 8-of-26 shots (30.8 percent) behind the three-point arc. Kent State posted a 41.0 shooting mark and was 7-of-23 (30.4 percent) from three-point range.
The Golden Flashes held a significant advantage in getting to the free-throw line, knocking down 17-of-23 attempts compared to Toledo's 10-of-11 conversion rate.
Toledo owned a 41-33 lead at intermission and opened the second half with a trey. Kent State, however, chipped away and eventually tied the score 50-50 on Danny Pippen's turnaround jumper with 12:51 remaining.
The Golden Flashes eventually pulled ahead, 60-57, five minutes later following a Beck layup and Malique Jacobs' three-point play.
Toledo quickly regained a 63-62 lead following Spencer Littleson's slam with 5:20 left and Jackson put the Rockets ahead to stay, 72-69, with a three-pointer at the 2:25 mark.
Ryan Rollins' two free throws increased Toledo's lead to 74-69, but the Golden Flashes rallied to within 74-73 with 41.1 seconds left. Jackson scored the Rockets' final points with a steal and layup with 9.0 seconds remaining.
KSU's Dannie Pippen made one free throw with 2.4 seconds left to cut the lead to two. He intentionally missed his second attempt. The ensuing rebound went out of bounds off Toledo with 1.8 ticks remaining. The Golden Flashes had a chance to tie the score on an in-bounds play but Nuga's shot rimmed out.
ATHENS, Ohio -- A triple-double by junior guard Jason Preston paved the way for the Ohio Bobcat's wire-to-wire 85-77 victory over Ball State (6-7, 4-4 MAC) on Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center.
Preston scored 11 points, grabbed 10 boards and dished out 11 assists, marking Ohio's first triple-double since Preston achieved the feat for the first time in his career on February 2, 2020 against Miami.
"I don't think I've ever seen a triple-double through 3-of-16 from the field," said second-year Ohio head coach Jeff Boals. "It's one of those deals you always talk about where if you don't shoot the ball well, you can still do a lot of other things. (Preston's) impact for us is huge. ... (He is) Just a special player."
Preston was one of five Bobcats to reach double figures in points. Senior forward Dwight Wilson III put up 18 points and added eight rebounds. Sophomore guard Lunden McDay scored 17 points, going a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line.
Redshirt junior forward Ben Vander Plas scored 11 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists. Off the bench, freshman guard Mark Sears had 19 points, leading the way for an Ohio squad that converted 26 of its 35 free throw attempts by going 8-of-10 from the line.
"After we lost to Kent, we had a really good film session with pretty much the guys who play," said Boals. "I think the carryover from last Sunday's film session was really, really big. It's something we have to do on a game-by-game basis in order to win games."
The Cardinals had three players score in double-digits, with senior guard Ishmael El-Amin leading all scorers with 21 points. Luke Bmbalough (11) and Kani Acree (10) combined for 21 points.
Ohio (8-6, 4-4 MAC) outrebounded Ball State, 45-34, and tallied 17 offensive boards. The Bobcats held a decisive edge in second chance points (26-10) and points in the paint (40-22).
Ohio went into halftime holding a 46-40 lead. and BSU opened the second half with a three before the Bobcats countered with a 7-0 run.
Ohio held a 55-46 lead going into the first media timeout. A scramble pass from freshman forward Colin Granger to a wide-open Sears led to a corner three at 14:29, which kicked off a 7-0 run by Sears. A back-and-forth flurry of baskets pushed the score to 69-60 Ohio at the under-eight media timeout. Preston secured his own rebound and scored to cement the triple-double with 2:49 remaining.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Akron Zips used a second-half surge from senior Loren Cristian Jackson and a collective effort of defense and toughness to limit the Western Michigan Broncos to 30 second half points en route to a 79-68 victory at Read Fieldhouse on Saturday evening.
Jackson scored 22 points and dished out four assists in the second half to lift Akron (8-3, 6-2 MAC) to the win. He finished the game with 32 points and six assists, his fourth 30-plus point effort of the season.
Jackson provided the Zips initial spark, taking the first two possessions of the second stanza straight to the rim. He scored 11 of the Zips 15 points while feeding sophomore Ali Ali an alley-oop. Senior Camron Reece added a pair of free throws and the game was tied 46 -46 at the 12:28 mark.
The Broncos 2-9, 1-5 MAC) answered with a layup, but senior Maishe Dailey buried a 3-pointer from the left wing to give Akron its first lead (49-48) since 2:20 in the first half. The Zips never trailed again as Jackson provided the assist to Dailey and went on to score 11 additional points.
Akron scored 48 points in the second half on 52 percent shooting from the floor (13-of-25), including a 33.3 percent effort from deep (4-of-12) and 81.8 percent from the charity stripe (18-of-22). Jackson, Dailey, Dawson and junior Bryan Trimble, Jr. all made 3-pointers during that stretch, while Jackson went 11-of-12 from 6the free throw line and 13-of-14 for the game.
Greg Lee led the Broncos with 22 points and Adrian Martin notched 11 in defeat. Western Michigan had four more field goals (27-23), but Akron registered five more treys and made 23-of-31 free throws to WMU's 9-of-12.
By MIKE SMITH
YPSILANTI, MI -- Dae Dae Grant and Delonte Brown again shined as the Miami RedHawks finished a red-hot week with an 85-63 victory over Eastern Michigan Saturday at the Convocation Center. It was the first road win of the season for Miami (7-4, 4-2 MAC). Eastern Michigan (4-7, 1-6 MAC) dropped its third straight game.
Grant poured in a career-high 28 points, hitting 10-of-15 shots overall and 6-of-7 from beyond the arc against EMU. The sophomore tallied 27 Thursday in MU's upset win over Bowling Green. Brown, a senior, netted 16 Saturday after knocking down 17 in each of MU's previous two contests.
Drew Louder led Eastern Michigan with 11 points.
As it did against Bowling Green Thursday, Miami exploded out of the gate. The RedHawks were up 9-0 before Eastern Michigan got on the scoreboard with a couple free throws.
A couple Brown charity tosses at 14:35 gave MU an 18-4 advantage. Although the Eagles offense finally got untracked, Miami, which hit 46.9 percent from the field before intermission, carried a 42-23 lead into halftime. Eastern Michigan was at just 25 percent.
The RedHawks lead reached 22 points and they were up 55-33 when Mekhi Lairy was assessed a technical foul at 14:33. Eastern Michigan took advantage, scoring five straight. However, EMU could not get any closer than 13 (twice), and Miami extended its lead to 24 points in the final minute before closing with a 22-point margin.