Sophomore Ali Ali paced the Zips' scoring with 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and a 3-of-4 effort from deep, marking his fourth 20-plus point performance of the season. Juniors Xavier Castaneda and Bryan Trimble, Jr. followed with 15 and 13 points, respectively, while sophomore Greg Tribble added 11 points.
Mekhi Lairy was the only RedHawk in double figures. He hit 10 of 17 shots from the floor and made all six free throw tries on the way to 27 points.
Much like the first game 48 hours earlier, the stat sheet did not tell the full story as Akron limited the RedHawks (9-13, 3-8 MAC) to just 30.8 percent shooting from the floor (8-of-26) and only 20 percent from beyond the 3-point arc (2-of-10) with a stifling defensive performance. However, Akron only led by two points at halftime, 28-26. The Zips (15-6, 8-3 MAC) shot 40.9 percent (9-of-22) from the floor and 4-of-9 from deep, including three from Trimble and one trifecta from Castaneda in the first stanza. Akron held a slight 17-15 edge on the glass.
Again, Akron elevated its level of play in the second half, outscoring the RedHawks 16-2 over 4:31 fueled eight points by Ali to support a 10-0 run. Ali buried a pair of triples, separated by a strong post move. Ali went 3-of-3 from long distance in the second half.
In the final 20 minutes, the Zips knocked down 6-of-10 trifectas to shoot 60 percent from downtown and 13-of-20 from the field for a 65.0 shooting percentage from the field. Akron finished plus-16 on the glass, grabbing 36 total boards as sophomore Enrique Freeman secured 10 rebounds.