Akron 93, Malone 83
Indiana State 67, Ball State 57
Syracuse 107, Buffalo 96 (OT)
Bradley 69, Miami 68
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TOLEDO, Ohio - Toledo pulled away in the second half to win its third straight game in a 71-57 non-conference victory over Valparaiso on Saturday afternoon in Savage Arena. The Rockets are now 6-3 this season, while the Crusaders dropped to 3-5.
"It was a grind-out win for us today," Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "It may not have been pretty, but I thought we played hard. We took care of the basketball remarkably well with 16 assists and four turnovers. We defended really well in the first half, but our shots just weren't falling -- even though we had really good looks. The second half they just started going in, which happens sometimes in basketball."
Senior Marreon Jackson paced Toledo with a game-high 18 points and five assists. Also scoring in double figures were junior Setric Millner Jr. (14 pts.) and freshman Ryan Rollins (11 pts.).
Senior Spencer Littleson spearheaded the strong effort on the boards from the Rockets' backcourt with a career-high eight rebounds. Rollins grabbed seven boards, while Jackson collected six.
"Our guard rebounding numbers were phenomenal today and that's really important with losing Willie Jackson and Luke Knapke from a year ago," Kowalczyk said.
Sophomore Donovan Clay led Valparaiso with 17 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Neither team led by more than three points over the final 13:22 in a first half that featured eight lead changes.
Toledo shot 25.0 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes but stayed in the game by committing just three turnovers, holding a 29-22 rebounding margin and limiting the Crusaders to a 32.3 shooting mark.
Back-to-back three-point field goals from Marreon Jackson and Mattia Acunzo and a pair of Ryan Rollins free throws provided the Rockets their first double-digit lead, 52-41, with 10:29 to play.
Valparaiso rallied to within 57-52 five minutes later and had a pair of opportunities to draw closer but came up empty.
Rollins added two more free throws and Spencer Littleson buried a three-pointer for a 67-54 cushion with 2:16 remaining.
AKRON, Ohio – A strong second half and dominant interior play from sophomore Enrique Freeman led the Akron Zips to a 93-83 win over visiting Malone on Saturday afternoon at James A. Rhodes Arena.
Senior guard Loren Cristian Jackson led Akron with 34 points and 10 assists, helping fuel a second-half surge that propelled the Zips (2-1) to their second win of the season. His effort was complemented by a monster game from Freeman, whose double-double included career highs of 22 points and 21 rebounds, along with three blocked shots and two steals. Senior guard Maishe Dailey (Beechwood, Ohio) chipped in with 10 points in the winning effort.
A total of 10 different players scored for the Zips, whose defense also forced 17 Malone turnovers.
Sophomore forward Bo Myers led Malone with 23 points and senior forward Marcus Ernst added 17 for Malone.
The Zips struggled to find their range in the opening minutes as a red-hot Malone squad raced out to a 17-3 lead. However, Akron steadily worked its way back into the game behind the strong inside presence of Freeman, who had tallied his first career double-double before the halftime buzzer sounded.
Using his length and leaping ability, Freeman consistently soared over Malone defenders for offensive rebounds and putbacks, notching 14 points and 10 rebounds – six on the offensive end – in the opening frame.
As Freeman helped spark the offense, it lit the fuse for Jackson, who settled in as the half wore on and led all scorers in the first 20 minutes with 17 points. Behind their dynamic duo, the Zips were able to narrow their deficit and trailed by just two (43-41) at the break.
Akron's first lead of the day came with 6:46 remaining in regulation on a corner 3-pointer by junior guard Bryan Trimble, Jr., edging the hosts ahead by a 67-64 margin. Freeman extended the lead to four moments later off an assist from Jackson.
On the strength of an 18-8 run, the Zips were able to extend their lead to seven entering the final media timeout of the game and were never threatened after that as they put away the Pioneers (0-1).
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - In its final non-conference tuneup, Ball State rallied from 17 down but ran out of time in a 67-57 loss at Indiana State on Saturday afternoon.
Ishmael El-Amin led the Cardinals with team highs of 18 points and three assists and K.J. Walton added 13 points. Indiana State's Jake LaRavia scored 27 for Indiana State, which had lost three straight in the series with the Cardinals.
CARDINAL COMEBACK: Ball State had 13 turnovers and shot 4-for-10 at the foul line in the first half, allowing Indiana State to build a 38-23 halftime lead. ISU's lead reached as much as 17 before the Cardinals battled back, twice cutting the defiicit to two. A 3-pointer by Miryne Thomas with 13:45 left made it a 42-40 game but Indiana State answered with the next five points. A driving lay-up by Walton with 4:08 left cut the ISU lead to 59-57 but the home team scored the final eight points of the game.
Jalen Windham had his best game as Cardinal, scoring 10 points in 25 minutes off the bench. The Cardinals made all six of their free throws in the second half but finished 5-for-20 as a team from 3-point range. The game featured 41 turnovers.
STRAIGHT FROM THE COACH: "Credit Indiana State," Ball State head coach James Whitford said. "You could tell they were ready to play, and I thought they really took us out of a lot of things early in the first half and we didn't handle it well. I thought our turnovers early were the difference in the game."
SYRACUSE, NY – The Buffalo Bulls led by as many as 16 points at ACC foe Syracuse on Saturday evening, but the UB was unable to hold on and fell to the Orange 107-96 in overtime. Buffalo, which fell to 3-3 on the year, was outscored 20-9 in overtime.
Buffalo held an 11-point lead at the break and that ballooned to a 16-point advantage before Syracuse began to come back. The Orange used a huge advantage at the free throw line as Syracuse went 32-of-42 from the charity stripe, as opposed to just 9-of-13 for UB. Over the final 25 minutes, the Orange went to line 30 times, while the Bulls only managed to get there five times.
Junior Jeenathan Williams had 10 points for the Bulls right out of the gate as UB opened a 15-12 lead. However, Williams played just over five minutes in the first half due to foul trouble.
Leading by just one at 22-21, the Bulls went on a 17-4 run, which included six points from junior Josh Mballa and triples from Ronaldo Segu and Jayvon Graves, which put the Bulls ahead 39-27 with 4:58 left. UB went on to take an 11-point lead into the break.
Syracuse would cut it to nine early in the second half before the Bulls went on a 7-0 run as a layup from Graves gave the Bulls their largest lead of the night at 57-41 with 16:34 remaining. The Orange would begin to chip away over the final 10 minutes.
The Bulls led by eight with just over seven minutes left when an 11-3 Syracuse run tied the game up. There were four ties over the final four minutes of action, ultimately sending the game into overtime. UB forced OT as Segu drained a three-pointer with 15 seconds left, and UB would ultimately have a chance at the end, but a Graves dunk attempt was blocked, sending the game into the extra period tied at 87-87.
It was all Syracuse in the extra five minutes as they scored 20 points and led for the entire overtime period, extending the lead to as many as 13 late in that period.
Mballa led the Bulls with a career high 27 points, while adding seven rebounds. Graves had 22 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and four steals as he filled out the stat sheet in over 40 minutes of action.
Williams added 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists, while Segu finished the night with 13 points and six dimes.
Senior Keishawn Brewton added 10 points, while David Nickelberry finished with three points and LaQuill Hardnett had two points and four boards.
The Bulls finished the night with 22 assists on 39 made baskets. The 39 made field goals are the most in a game since Nov. 11, 2019 against Nazareth. The 96 points scored by Buffalo is the most in a game against Syracuse since Duke scored 97 on Feb. 1, 2020.
PEORIA, IL-- The Miami RedHawks shot 50 percent from the field overall, but a cold shooting spell down the stretch allowed Bradley to edge MU 69-68 Saturday at Carver Arena.
Miami's largest lead was 10 points (33-23) with 4:42 remaining in the first half, but the Braves trailed by just two (37-35) at intermission. Bradley (6-2) quickly moved in front when play resumed, and the two teams exchanged leads through much of the second stanza. It was a 9-0 Braves run over the final few minutes that proved pivotal. Miami (3-3) had a couple shots in the final seconds, but neither fell.
Dae Dae Grant and Delonte Brown led MU with 17 points apiece. Isaiah Coleman-Lands also reached double figures with 14.
In addition to hitting 50 percent from the field overall, the RedHawks were good on 54.2 percent of their shot from outside the arc.
Bradley was just 6-of-23 (26.1%) from long distance but made 45 percent of its shots from the field overall. Due to a 34-27 rebounding advantage, the Braves had two more made field goals and owned a 9-2 edge on points in the paint. Bradley also hit 9-of-10 free throws while MU went 5-of-9 at the line.
Sean East II led Bradley with 14 points. Joining him in double figures were Elijah Childs (13), Ari Boya (10) and Ville Tahvanainen (10).