by Akron, OH; It was a matinee edition of Akron Zips basketball who are coming off a strong opening night win over JMU. The Zips welcomed in the Princeton Tigers who were picked to finish 4th in the Ivy league and are getting their first action of the season. With the Tigers getting the last laugh at home in December of 2024 after a 76-75 win, the Zips were looking to get some revenge. And they did just that coming away with a 104-69 win, improving to 2-0 on the season.
“I thought our defense was good. But obviously the biggest difference from Monday night to today was the offensive end. I thought we had guys turn down great shots for good shots, we moved the ball well so I was pleased with that,” head coach John Groce said.
Akron would go onto have four different players scoring in double digits. It was all led by Tavari Johnson who finished with 21 points, 6 assists, and 1 steal. Johnson was picked to be on the preseason All-MAC first team heading into the 2025-26 season as he is the favorite to take over the offense after the departure of 2024 MAC player of the year Nate Johnson.
Besides Johnson, the Zips also had Amani Lyles finish with 16, and both of the Mahaffey brothers finishing with 14 points each. Eric had a tremendous all around game finishing one rebound of a double-double along, while Evan gets his first double digit performance since transferring over from Ohio State. “When I see him doing well out there, it always gets me a little bit excited,” (Evan) Mahaffey said about feeding off the energy with his brother. (Evan) Mhaffey continued, “he hit his first three, the one that I passed to him, so he just needs some brother love.”
It was a sluggish start for Groce’s standards. At least until the Zips went on a 19-0 run to take a 32-13 lead with over seven minutes left in the first half. The early run would be key as it was the difference in completely flipping the game. “When we’re all playing like that, you don’t even think about the scoreboard. You just keep playing with that momentum play after play no matter what happens,” (Evan) Mahaffey said on the 19-0 run.
Princeton slowly got some points back, but they could not get any stops defensively. Akron was able to cruise to a 47-27 halftime lead thanks to winning the turnover battle at 6-3 and paint battle at 16-10. They were shooting only 45%, but the defense was able to hold Princeton to just 28% shooting themselves. It was essentially a two man show for the Tigers and it was simply not enough.
Much would be the same in the second half as the Zips came out of the half with a 14-6 run showing even more intensity than they had in the first half. “Coach said at halftime we had to come out in the first four minutes with energy,” (Eric) Mahaffey said. Despite the offensive struggles even lingering into the second half to start, Princeton was able to get a little bit going as they got up to shooting 42% including 6-for-16 from deep, scoring 15 more points than they did in the first half.
But it was simply a domination from the Zips offense in the second half. They outscored the Tigers 57-42 while shooting 55% including 9-for-21 from deep. With the four players scoring in double digits, 22 points off turnovers, and 40 points alone in the paint, the best team in the MAC was able to cruise to a 104-69 win.
