Zips basketball: Three observations on beating KSU

You can’t really say that the Zips were lucky to win this 71-67 victory.  Escape maybe.  Lucky?  No.

The fact is good teams are supposed to win games such as this and there are reasons they did:

• They discovered their inside game in the second half  in the form of Zeke Marshall and Demetrius Treadwell.  Treadwell emerged from the intermission and came out on a tear as he had a double-double by five minutes  into the second half.  His rebounding made a huge difference as well as Treadwell grabbed 10 boards in the second.  Marshall, who led the Zips in scoring, came up with 13 of his 17 in the second half along with seven of his 11 rebounds.
• It’s that rebounding that ultimately made the difference as the Zips crushed the boards in the second half, besting the Flashes 31-13.  That includes 17-3 domination on the offensive glass. It was the difference in the game as the Zips got 26 offensive rebounds in the game to Kent’s 14.
• Lastly, I made note of Chauncey Gilliam storming off the court after the Ball State game after playing only three minutes.   They probably don’t win this game without Gilliam’s effort today.  He came off the bench with Nick Harney in foul trouble for most of the game and gave the Zips 11 points off the bench including three treys that were all huge.  At one point in the game, he was the only one on the Zips’ to connect on them until Alex Abreu and Brian Walsh delivered huge ones.

Quick hits: Zeke Marshall broke the MAC blocked shots record, recording four on the night.  That gives him 304 for his career…Treadwell recorded his second double-double of the season… It was the first time in 50 years the Zips won back-to-back games at Kent.