Toledo ends Akron basketball winning streaks; Rockets create Mid-American Conference tie
Two streaks came to an end Tuesday night for the University of Akron men’s basketball team inside Rhodes Arena.
Toledo snapped both UA’s eight-game overall winning streak and a 14-game homecourt winning streak with its 84-74 win over the Zips in a Mid-American Conference game. The homecourt winning streak dated back to last season.
Setric Millner Jr. scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds to guide the Rockets (18-6, 9-2) to their eighth win in a row. Dante Maddox Jr. (19 points, eight rebounds), RayJ Dennis III (18 points, five assists) and JT Shumate (14 points) also reached double digits for Toledo.
“Congratulate Toledo,” UA coach John Groce said. “I thought they did a lot of really good things and played well. They certainly were beyond tough as an opponent. We knew going in obviously they were the highest rated offensive team that we had defended in my six-year tenure here. No. 1 in the league in league games and top 15 in the country. We knew they would be a handful.”
The Zips (17-7, 9-2) were paced by Xavier Castaneda (23 points), Trendon Hankerson (20 points), Enrique Freeman (10 points, 12 rebounds) and Sammy Hunter (seven points).
Akron, coming off its big win over Kent State on Friday, struggled to score in the first half Tuesday. The Zips rallied from a nine-point deficit to trail 62-58 with less than eight minutes remaining in the second half after Castaneda made two free throws and Hankerson netted his fourth 3-pointer of the half.
Toledo countered with an 10-2 run to lead 72-60 with 4:57 to go. The Zips responded with an 11-2 spurt to trail 74-71 with 2:25 left. The Rockets gained separation once again, leading 79-71 with less than two minutes to go and holding on from there.
“The difference in the game was our inability to be effective offensively in the first half,” Groce said. “Obviously, once we settled in in the second half we shot 44% from 3, 50% overall and 78% from the free throw line. We had a really good second half offensively. Unfortunately, our offensive woes put us in a situation where we were behind [37-28 at halftime].”
Three takeaways from Akron vs. Toledo
1) Groce was not happy with the amount of fouls Tuesday as Akron was whistled for 23 fouls and Toledo was called for 12 fouls. Toledo made 23-of-28 free throws and Akron converted 9-of-11 free throws. Greg Tribble fouled out. Freeman and Hankerson both finished with four fouls. “I am very disappointed with the free throw discrepancy,” Groce said. “That would be an understatement. I will have to take a look at it. I didn’t like a couple of the calls, quite frankly. I will look at it on the film and try to have more of an unbiased approach. As my dad and my old coach used to say: ‘The film never lies.' So, I will take a look at the film and I will see what it looks like. I could be wrong.”
2) The Zips shot 32.4% from the field and 25.0% from beyond the 3-point arc in the first half. A majority of the shots were within the flow of the offense, but didn’t go in. “We had several good 3s off of inside-out penetration,” Groce said. “We just didn’t make them.”
3) Akron moves on to meet Ohio. “We have got to get ready for a national TV game on Friday night in Athens,” Groce said. “I didn’t think we guarded them very well at home. We played pretty well on offense which is ultimately why we won the home game [83-77 on Jan. 28]. ... Give our guys credit. They won eight games in a row in this league and that is hard to do.”
Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Toledo men's basketball beats Akron, ends Zips winning streaks
