by Seattle, WA; It was a first round match-up between the 4th-seeded Arizona Wildcats and the 13th-seeded Akron Zips. The Wildcats came into the game at 22-12 on the season, falling to Houston in the Big 12 Championship. While Akron came in at 28-6 on the season as MAC Champions, and winners of seven straight.
Arizona was led by Junior guard Jaden Bradley who finished with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Senior forward Trey Townsend followed up with 16 points and 8 rebounds. While star Senior guard Caleb Love finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists.
The Wildcats had five different players finish with double digits in their 93-65 win over the Zips.
Akron was led by Junior guard Tavari Johnson who finished with 13 points and 2 rebounds. Senior guard Shammah Scott finished with 11 points and 3 rebounds off the bench.
While MAC player of the year, Junior guard Nate Johnson was extremely disappointing tonight who finished with 13 points and 2 assists. Despite the 13 points, 11 of them came from free throws alone.
The game started off with a 9-0 run from Arizona which forced Akron to call their first timeout with 18:11 left in the first half. With it being in the Northwest area, the mainly Wildcats crowd were loud early on.
Things would quickly slow down with a 6-2 run by the Zips. But the Wildcats still led 11-6 at the first media timeout.
Arizona would proceed to go on a 14-10 scoring run getting the lead back up to nine. At the under-8 media timeout of the first half, the Wildcats had a 25-16 lead.
The first half ended pretty evenly with Arizona on a 16-15 scoring run. It seemed pretty fortunate that they only trailed at the half, 31-41.
The Zips were shooting just 32%, getting out-rebounded 30-13, and also got dominated in the paint, 24-12. If it was not for 13 first half points from guard Tavari Johnson, the game may have been over right then and there at halftime.
Unfortunately for Akron, Arizona continued with their physicality. Showing up with a 21-15 run to begin the second half as the Wildcats began to run away with the game. At the under-12 media timeout of the second half, the Zips found themselves trailing 46-62.
It was all about Arizona tonight. They finished the game on a whopping 29-19 scoring run, giving the Zips no chance whatsoever to come back. The Wildcats would go onto win with a final score of 93-65.
This would come thanks to a massive rebounding advantage in which Arizona won 53-22. The difference down on the inside almost seemed unfair. In comparison, Duke had just 44 rebounds earlier on Friday in their 93-49 win.
Between the rebounding mismatch and the Wildcats shooting 12-for-25 from three, it was no wonder why Arizona owned this match-up.
Despite the loss, it was still a great season for the Akron Zips who took home the MAC Championship in back-to-back seasons.
