by Akron, OH; It was a celebration night in the rubber city as the Akron Zips got their rings and rose another banner in honor of winning back-to-back MAC Championships in 2024 and 2025. Looking to three-peat as conference champions for the first time since 2011-2013. The Zips welcomed in the James Madison Dukes to kick it all off. Both teams came in as preseason favorites in the MAC and the SBC respectively, and the Dukes are entering with 13 new players, having just two players return from last season.
Unfortunately for JMU, the Zips would start off on the right foot with a 85-71 win over the Dukes. Akron was led by senior Amani Lyles. With 2025 MAC player of the year Nate Johnson gone, the Zips needed someone to replace him offensively and Lyles sure did take that leap in the opener going off for a career high 22 points, added 8 rebounds, and also tied his career high in blocks with 4. “You want to talk about a guy that’s a poster child for the University of Akron,” head coach John Groce said. “When you look at what he was doing as a freshman, compared to what he’s doing now, it’s like night and day. He’s a good teammate who cares about winning.”
The game started off with a very quick 5-0 run by JMU within the first minute alone, but Akron responded back with a 9-0 run by the first media timeout. The scoring then got stagnant from both sides as the Zips held a 17-7 lead with 11:13 left in the first half. But it did not take long for this game to completely flip around as the Dukes all of a sudden caught fire and outscored the Zips 32-13 to end the first half with a 39-30 lead. The run was led by 5th year guard Cliff Davis who had 11 points alone just across those final eleven minutes of the half. It was safe to say the Akron crowd was stunned after a hot start in which they ended up shooting just 31% from the field including 17% from three.
Groce would no doubt find a way to make the right adjustments at the half, and the Zips showed just that coming out on a 18-11 run to cut the JMU lead down to 48-52. Despite both shooting around the same percentage to begin the second half, it was once again the free throws being the difference for Akron all game long. The Zips went 10-13 from the line in the first half, and finished 13-16 from the line.
Akron would keep their high energy going as it was a very entertaining second half. They were able to retake the lead again with eight minutes left in the game following a Shammah Scott deep ball to put the Zips up 62-61. In fact, Scott and Akron kept it going the rest of the way as they finished the game outscoring JMU 23-10 leaving the Dukes no chance. Scott finished with 14 points and 1 rebound, including going 3-7 from deep. “It was very important to set the tone like this,” Scott said about an opening night win over Princeton.
It was essentially a tale of two halves for the Zips as they shot 45% from the field in the second half along with 50% from three. A huge improvement from the first half, and a testament to Groce getting the team right at halftime. “I think it was just a sense of desparation from the group,” Groce said about the second half comeback.
Senior Tavari Johnson would also be a big part in the second half after scoring just 2 points in the first half. Johnson would go onto finish with 14 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. The comeback win gives Akron a nice confidence booster to start the season, as if the back-to-back MAC champions needed more confidence anyways. The Zips next welcome in Princeton on Saturday afternoon.
