by Kent, OH; It was another edition of the cross-town rivalry as the Akron Zips welcomed in the Kent State Golden Flashes from just about 20 minutes down the road. But give it up to Akron who came away with the 69-52 victory improving to 18-4 on the season. The win now also gives them the nation’s longest home winning streak at 28 games, and also earns them an eight-game winning streak for the time being. “I thought it was a rock fight,” head coach John Groce said following the win. “I was thinking the last 24 hours that this thing could end up looking more like a football game than a basketball game.”
Tavari Johnson led the way for the Zips with 16 points, a career-high nine rebounds, and four assists. “Yeah, I’m really a force to be reckoned with,” Johnson jokingly said postgame about his new career-high in rebounds. Bowen Hardman followed up with 15 points which featured going 5-9 from deep. While Shammah Scott finished with nine points, three rebounds, and three assists.
As for the Kent State side of things, Delrecco Gillespie led the way with 17 points. But the nation’s leading rebounder coming in was held in check to just seven rebounds on the night. Morgan Safford was the only other one scoring in double digits (10 points) for the road team as they struggled with Rob Whaley Jr. out for the second consecutive game. But Rob Griffith did finish for a career-high 17 rebounds starting in place for the veteran.
You could tell that it was going to be very physical as soon as things tipped off. Groce had to get involved in breaking up a scuffle in just the first four seconds. “I didn’t know it was also going to be WWE to start the game, I’ve never seen anything like that,” Groce said himself about the moment. It erupted the home crowd even more to give Akron the energy they needed to outscore the Golden Flashes 13-4 to start things off in the first nine minutes overall.
Gillespie would finally get things going for Kent State offensively after starting off shooting 18% as a team. But they still found themselves down by eight at the under-8 media timeout, 22-14. The scoring wold ramp up to end the half, but it became a back and forth game as the home team still held onto a nine point lead.
Up 38-28 at halftime, Akron was shooting at a high 50% rate which included 35% from deep. In comparison, the Golden Flashes were shooting 30%, including just 10% from deep. They were getting their luck winning the paint battle, 16-10 and rebounding, 25-16. It would have been a closer game if not for five missed free throws from the road team in the first twenty minutes.
It looked like Kent State would get off to a good start out of the half with a 4-0 run. But the Zips responded right back with a 12-0 run of their own to open up a 17-point lead at 50-33. With 12:22 left to play, the Golden Flashes chances were beginning to look very slim.
The second half ended up being one to remember for Akron as they were able to open up a lead as big as 64-41 with just 3:59 left to play. With the defense as locked down as they were all night allowing Kent State to go just 1-23 from 3PT range and 28% shooting in general, there is no wonder why the road team could barely reach 50 points.
Match that with the Zips shooting 11-34 from deep themselves, and that is your difference in this game even though the Golden Flashes dominated in the paint and on the boards. In the end, it ended up as a very solid 69-52 win for the home team. Akron now leads the all-time series 86-82, now winners of six straight over their rival.
