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The Akron Zips led from start to finish as they upset the top seeded Toledo Rockets 70-62 to advance to the MAC Championship game Saturday night. They were led by the red-hot shooting of Xavier Castaneda who finished with 26 points, including 15 of those from beyond the three-point line.
He had plenty of help as the Zips had three other players reach double digits on the night. Ali Ali 13 had points while Enrique Freeman scored 12 and Greg Tribble scored 10. The Zips shot 8 of 23 from deep in the win. Mikal Dawson had three of those triples as he finished with 9 on the night.
The Toledo Rockets never held a lead as they trailed post to post. The Rockets were paced with 18 points from Ryan Rollins and 13 from Ra’Heim Moss, but it wasn’t enough to avoid the upset.
Akron built a quick 15-7 lead thanks in part to hot shooting from beyond the arc. In the games first 5 minutes, Mikal Dawson had 6 from long range while Xavier Castaneda dialed in from deep as well. This was mixed in with buckets from Enrique Freeman and Greg Tribble during the run. Toledo would battle back quickly however and cut it to 17-14 thanks in part to hot early shooting from Ra’Heim Moss who hit his first 4 shots for 9 points.
Akron would come roaring back and go on a 13-4 run to extend their lead to 30-18 thanks to some more clutch shooting from Greg Tribble and Castaneda from beyond the arc. The one seeded Rockets found themselves in trouble.
The Zips would maintain a double-digit advantage and take a 38-28 lead into the break. Moss led the Rockets with 11 while Castaneda led the Zips with 10 after 20 minutes of action. Akron had built a 15 point at one point in the half before the Rockets went on a 5-0 run to close out the half.
The Rockets came out firing in the second half, hitting on 8 of their first 12 shots to cut the lead to 48-44. During that hot steak they cashed in on three triples from Milner and Moss. Then, only down one, JT Shumate joined the three-point party and nailed one to make it a 1 point game with 10:44 to go.
Akron didn’t blink and they just kept feeding their three-point machine Xavier Castaneda who simply wouldn’t miss and started bombing away once again. He would explode from long range and the Zips built the lead back up to 59-51 thanks in part to his hot hand. At that point in the game, he was 5 of 9 from long range for 24 points with 7:33 to go.
Another Toledo comeback would be thwarted as Mikal Dawson buried a three to put Akron ahead 66-59 with only 1:51 left to play. The Zips would hang on from there for the win.
