No MAC-tion as Zips Whip Bobcats For Bid

Akron and Ohio were the class of the Mid-American Conference all season long, both finishing 14-2 in league play and tying for the regular season East division championship. However, Akron owned Ohio during the regular season and had to complete the season sweep if they wanted to make the NCAA tournament for sure.

That's exactly what they did on Saturday evening, winning in convincing fashion and completing the season sweep, 65-46. However, it wasn't all easy for the Zips as it was actually a three point, 29-26 lead for the Bobcats of Ohio as they went to intermission.

Apparently, that woke the Zips up as they came out firing in the 2nd half and Ohio had two stretches, one in the middle and one in the end, where they couldn't buy a basket. Akron went ahead and outscored the Bobcats 39-17 in the 2nd stanza and it was pretty much all over by the time Ohio got out of their slump of 3 plus minutes without a FG that started with 5:54 left in the half.

By then it was was already a 20 plus point deficit and it took all they had to keep it under a 20 point blowout.


Oh, and lest you think this was a blowout because of one performance, try four Zips in double figures and none of them scoring more than 13 points. Akron was led by forwards Chauncey Gilliam and Demetrius Treadwell's 13 points each (Treadwell had a double-double with 10 rebounds as well). They were joined by Nick Harney's 11 and Zeke Marshall's 10 points.

Needless to say whichever poor team is stuck playing the Zips in the NCAA tournament is going to have to button down the hatchets down low. Good luck on that one.