The intensity showed in the tone, the pace and pleas to the referees. They played it with the deliberation of a tournament game. In the end, the Zips (11-6, 3-0) won their game with the Ohio Bobcats (13-4, 1-2) 68-63 to capture their fourth consecutive game and remain undefeated in the MAC.
Zips center Zeke Marshall led all scorers with 17 points, with sophomore Nick Harney and senior Brett Mc-Clanahan adding 10 each for Akron.
Point guard D.J. Cooper led the Bobcats with 13 points that the Zips made sure he earned.
“I think we made it tough on him, honestly. We knew where he wanted to go and we tried to contest passing lanes,” Zips point guard Alex Abreu said. “He had his couple of points at the end really, but he wasn’t really a factor like last year.”
Cooper torched the Zips twice last year. There was no such spark in the first of this season’s two meetings. Cooper led his team in scoring, but delving deeper into the numbers, he had a horrendous shooting day connecting on just 2-of-15 from the field.
“D.J. Cooper to me is the best player in the league – or at least one of them. Best perimeter player for sure and he’s killed us,” coach Keith Dambrot said. “So I guess today was kind of poetic justice that we finally guarded him a little bit because he’s destroyed us.”
Dambrot threw a couple of bodies at him more than a few times. On a couple of occasions, Marshall even stepped out on him.
The way the Zips played him resulted in some frustration.
“Maybe towards the very end there, up until then I thought he did a pretty good job, to be honest with you. He just kept battling, kept battling and kept battling,” Bobcats coach John Groce said.
But Cooper’s frustration might have rubbed off on his teammates.
“I think once D.J. Cooper’s way wasn’t working at the end, they started to lose composure and yelling at each other. … I think they did,” Marshall said.
While Ohio held the lead for much of the game, including well into the second half, the Zips took it for good when Abreu dropped a 3-pointer to make the score 59-57 with just 3:58 left in the game. At that moment, you could sense that even the Bobcats knew they were in trouble.
It’s a position the Zips have been familiar with the past couple of games as they have patiently ground out wins against Miami and Bowling Green.
“Those late-game stretches when the game is close, we’re kind of used to that right now,” Harney said. “A lot of teams aren’t used to that grind yet.”
It’s the way that Dambrot teaches them to play his version of basketball, Marshall said.
“He’s always preached that we need to be able to execute when the time is right because of the MAC championship and tournament,” he said. “That’s how games are. We’re not going to be blowing people out. If we can get wins like this, we can prepare ourselves more for March.”
But the Zips deserve some credit for the way they played on defense – especially in the second half. The Zips held the Bobcats to 35 percent shooting for the game as they connected on 22-of-62 shots.
Coach Groce grabbed a MAC official to talk to him about a questionable flagrant foul called on Walter Offutt. To say he wasn’t happy would be an understatement.
Quick shots
Marshall became just the eighth player in MAC history to block 200 shots. … The 4,661 in attendance gave the Zips their second-largest crowd of the season. … The victory gave Akron coach Dambrot his 93rd win in MAC play. He passed Bob Donewald (Western Michigan) to move into ninth place on the league’s list. … The win was Dambrot’s 193rd overall (173 at Akron; 20 at Central Michigan) as a MAC coach and tied him for seventh with Dick Parfitt (Central Michigan).
George M. Thomas can be reached at gmthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Zips blog at http://zips.ohio.com. Follow the Zips on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeorgeThomasABJ and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
