Akron goes on late run to down Ohio
Bobcats go cold for 8 minutes in 2nd half
By Lonnie McMillan / Contributor
Thursday, March 13, 2014
CLEVELAND – Akron went on a late 19-3 run to turn an eight-point deficit into an 83-77 victory against Ohio in the Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
The Bobcats led most of the game and threatened to run away with a 64-56 advantage with less than nine minutes remaining but managed only one basket for nearly eight minutes and the fourth-seeded Zips forged ahead and into a semifinal matchup against No. 1 Western Michigan.
“They brought their ‘A’ game. We brought ours,” Akron coach Keith Dambrot said. “There haven’t been a whole lot of games where we’ve scored 80.”
Nick Kellogg led all players with 25 points and six assists, while Javarez Willis scored 13 points and Maurice Ndour had 11 for fifth-seeded Ohio (23-11).
Quincy Diggs was big as he was in the Zips’ overtime victory against the Bobcats early in conference play, finishing with 20 points and three steals. He made what likely was the knockout punch by deflecting the ball away from Ndour from behind to set up a fast break dunk on the other end for Demetrius Treadwell, who had his third straight MAC Tournament double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Reggie McAdams hit all four shots he attempted and finished with 10 points.
Forced to play two games in the last three days prior to the quarterfinals because they finished outside of the top four in the regular season standings, the Bobcats may have appeared to have hit a physical wall, but coach Jim Christian said that was not the case.
“I think we hit an execution wall,” he said. “We just didn’t execute. We have a few key turnovers and we couldn’t get a stop. The offensive rebounds really killed us.”
T.J. Hall scored on a putback of his own miss with 8:59 remaining to give Ohio a 64-56 advantage, but the teams went in opposite directions after that. The Bobcats made just one of their next 10 shots with four turnovers while the Zips made 7 of 10 shots with only a single turnover and a number of free throws.
Pat Forsythe scored after an offensive rebound and added a free throw before a McAdams 3-pointer in transition and finally a Diggs steal and layup for an 8-0 run that tied the game at 64 with less than six minutes to go.
Kellogg had Ohio’s only points during the stretch with a second-chance 3-pointer that briefly gave the lead back to the Bobcats. Nick Harney made the first of two free throws on the other end and Treadwell rebounded and put back the miss on the second attempt to tie the game again.
Treadwell split a pair of free throws with 3:22 left to give Akron (21-11) its first lead of the second half and Diggs completed a three-point play at the 2:58 mark to make it a four-point game. After empty possessions by both teams, Diggs poked the ball away from Ndour to set up a Treadwell dunk with about two minutes left and Carmelo Betancourt added a jumper on the next possession to cap an 11-0 run.
Though they rank near the bottom of the NCAA in free throw shooting, the Zips closed out the game at the foul line by making six of eight.
“We buckled down on defense and we got stops and we converted it to points on the other end,” Treadwell said. “We played with a lot of heart and passion because we really wanted to win the game.”
Defense ruled for a while as the Bobcats held the Zips to just two points for a span of nearly six minutes, taking a 20-14 lead on a pair of Hall free throws at the 10:51 mark.
Kellogg hit a 3-pointer and Hall scored on a tip-in to give Ohio its biggest lead, 34-24, with less than three minutes left before halftime. But Akron came up big in the closing minutes of the first half, too, and went to the locker room down just 38-33 after Diggs hit a contested pull-up 3-pointer in the closing seconds.
“I knew they would have to really play a good game to beat us because I knew we would play better (than Wednesday against Miami),” Christian said.
Akron got as close as 45-44 on a Treadwell free throw with 15:42 remaining, but Ohio made another push to open up a bigger lead, beginning with a Treg Setty 3-pointer. Travis Wilkins answered a McAdams 3-pointer with one of his own, and after a Diggs basket, Kellogg hit one from deep to make it 56-51.
Once more, the Zips closed to within one before the Bobcats came back with an 8-1 run that included a Kellogg 3-pointer followed by a three-point play.
“We had no answers for them offensively,” Dambrot said. “We struggled to guard them. Kellogg was unbelievable. We just hung in there and made some plays at the end.”
Akron posed a pretty big challenge to Ohio’s defense, as well, finishing the game at 60.9 percent from the field. The Bobcats shot 48.3 percent, including 10 of 21 from long range, but the difference was in free throws. Akron was 20 of 34 while Ohio went 9 of 11.
The Bobcats had more turnovers, 13-9, and more offensive rebounds, 14-8.
Though things turned in the final minutes of the game, Christian said he expressed pride in his team in the locker room following the loss.
“I thanked the entire team,” Christian said. “This team gave me everything they had the whole entire year. We battled a lot of different things. You always judge a team by the finality. If you lose, what is their reaction? There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. That means they put their heart and soul into this. I wish it could have turned out better. I really thought this team earned a right to compete for a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament.”
Instead, the Bobcats will await an invitation from a different postseason tournament, likely to be announced Sunday night.
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