Beacon Journal staff report

For 32 minutes, the University of Akron basketball team looked poised and ready to reach a third-round game in the National Invitation Tournament.

Then the University of Massachusetts decided that it was the team to do just that.

The Minutemen (23-10) rallied from a late 12-point deficit Saturday afternoon to defeat the Zips 68-63 in an NIT game before a crowd of 3,118 at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass.

The Zips (24-11) led 58-46 with 8:36 remaining, but UMass closed with a 22-5 rally that sent it to a third-round game Tuesday night at Syracuse.

''We ran out of gas,'' UA coach Keith Dambrot told the media afterward. ''It went right to the wire. We could have won the game. We made some bad plays the last five minutes.''

The Zips dug themselves a 27-16 first-half hole, with some of the UMass edge coming when Dambrot rested his starters.

That caused Dambrot to stick with his regulars more than he normally does, playing them an average of 32 minutes.

A 23-point turnaround — from that 27-16 deficit to that 58-46 edge — was led by the starters and reserve Brett McKnight, but might have hurt near the finish.

''We had a difficult start and a difficult end, obviously,'' Dambrot said. ''I thought early in the game, we played OK, we were just a little flustered.

''And at the end of the game, we were just tired. It was kind of like being caught between a rock and a hard place. I didn't want to play our young players too much. We put our subs in a difficult position (early) to win the game and they couldn't get it done.''

In that fateful stretch run, the Zips had seven of their 16 turnovers and could manage just two free throws by Cedrick Middleton and a 3-point basket by McKnight.

The Minutemen did it by picking up the defensive pres
sure, especially by double-teaming senior center Jeremiah Wood, who scored 25 points in the first 32 minutes and none in the final eight.

The defensive shutdowns and UA turnovers helped UMass have a 9-0 run and a 10-0 run down the stretch.

UMass coach Travis Ford said a late timeout settled down his team and fueled the comeback.

''Akron is a very good basketball team,'' Ford said in his postgame news conference. ''They went on a run and we called a timeout and had a little talk. I thought we just needed to settle down and get focused on winning.

''They were out-toughing us, slapping the balls, bodying up against us, getting inside of the basket and laying it in. I think before that (the timeout), we were in a fog. We gained composure and our attitude completely changed.''

The Zips were hurt by a controversial intentional foul call on senior guard Nick Dials with 2:52 left. UMass was leading 61-60, when Dials lost the ball near midcourt and was called for an intentional foul on Minuteman point guard Chris Lowe.

Lowe made two free throws and, on the possession that UMass got for the foul, Gary Forbes was fouled and made two free throws to make it 65-60 with 2:38 left.

Despite not having much momentum, the Zips were still alive in the final minute, but 3-point misses by McKnight and Wood allowed UMass to hang on.

Wood, in his final game in a Zips uniform, was 9-of-17 from the field and 6-of-8 from the foul line for those 25 points, which were a career high.

Middleton, also in his last UA game, had 14 points, and McKnight, a freshman forward, reached double figures with 11.

UMass, which finished third in the Atlantic 10 Conference to NCAA Tournament participants Xavier and Temple, was led by Ricky Harris (20 points) and Lowe (17 points and five assists).

In the first half, UMass led 7-6 before four 3-pointers buoyed a 20-10 run that put the hosts ahead 27-16. Two 3-pointers by Middleton and one by Dials got UA to 34-31 at halftime.

Wood scored nine points in the first five minutes of the second half to put the Zips ahead 44-39. Later, Wood added another nine points in a 14-3 UA run to make it 58-46 — and signal the UMass comeback.