Ohio (11-10 overall, 5-4 Mid-American Conference) could not build off momentum and was dominated by a physical Akron (16-4 overall, 7-1 MAC) team, falling 86-65 at home Friday night.
Coming off a down-to-the-wire win against Northern Illinois, Ohio welcomed Akron to Athens on Friday night, and the building was restless as The Convo filled with fans. The players for both squads stepped on the court, and the intensity began with the opening tip-off.
The Zips were the first team on the scoreboard, scoring three layups that included an and-one for guard Tavari Johnson to give him five quick points and Akron a 7-0 lead. The Bobcats started sloppily on both ends, opening with two turnovers and only making one of their first five shots.
“They put a lot of pressure on the ball,” Ohio head coach Jeff Boals said. “We knew they'd trap the ball streams with Jackson (Paveletzke), but I thought we missed some layups early. We bobbled the ball out of bounds early. Things that weren't really forced. And you have to capitalize when you get trapped.”
The slow start did not last long. Redshirt junior forward Javan Simmons went to work and got two tough layups to fall, cutting the Akron lead to 11-6. Ohio kept rallying from behind through the next few minutes, and the ball kept finding senior guard Jackson Paveletzke, who got hot in a hurry with a pull-up jumper and then a three-pointer on Ohio’s following possession to cut the lead to 16-12 in favor of the Zips.
The Bobcats started slow beyond the arc until senior guard Dior Conners hit one from deep. Akron countered with a string of scores by forward Amani Lyles, who hit a three-pointer and a contested layup to stretch the advantage to 9 for Akron, 25-16.
The Ohio offense hit a stretch of turnovers, and Akron looked to take advantage with a 6-0 run by guard Sharron Young to push the lead to double digits, but the Zips weren’t done as they followed that run with a three-pointer and a couple of free throws due to a flagrant and technical foul on Ohio senior forward Aidan Hadaway. Akron pushed the lead to 20 on a jumper from Johnson, completing a 16-2 run to go up 38-18.
"They were trapping a lot of ball screens, and it kind of caused us to be sped up a little bit and make rush decisions,” Paveletzke said of Ohio’s first-half turnover troubles. “Kind of took us out of our (offensive) sets."
Ohio ended the run with a strong couple of minutes from redshirt senior Jalen Breath, who had a hustle rebound on offense to keep the possession alive, which he cleaned up for a physical two points, while also forcing a couple of Akron misses on the defensive end to cut the lead to 41-22.
The remainder of the first half was back-and-forth, with Akron winning the final couple of minutes by three, and both teams headed to the locker room. Ohio trailed and needed answers coming out of the tunnel, down 48-26.
The Bobcats' first possession out of the half went well with a three-pointer from freshman guard JJ Kelly, followed by their defense forcing two consecutive turnovers on the Zips. Ohio kept it up when Simmons scored through contact and converted the free-throw to draw a bit closer, now down 48-32.
Akron responded with a 5-1 run capped off on a turnaround jump shot by Johnson on the right baseline. The Zips kept pressuring Ohio and looked for a lot of paint touches early in the second half, which were successful in helping re-extend the lead to 63-39.
Ohio needed an answer and looked to a couple of veterans to supply it. First, Simmons grabbed an offensive board and put it back up for a two. Then Hadaway spun past a defender in the post and scored through contact for an and-one, cutting the Zips' lead to 66-48.
The final 10 minutes ticked off the clock as the Bobcats tried to stay in it. They went on a 5-0 scoring run powered by Kelly. Paveletzke found him in the corner for a three-pointer, and then after a pair of Simmons free throws, Kelly rejected a dunk attempt by a Zips big man, as Ohio continued to cut away at Akron’s 70-55 lead.
The Bobcats just could not get the shots to fall Friday night, shooting 33.3% from the field and 23.5% from the three-point line. Plus, the Zips took full advantage of each Bobcat turnover, cashing in for 16 points off of them. The Bobcats continued to battle until the final horn, but Akron managed the clock well in the final five minutes and put the game away.
“Today was a game where we could make very few mistakes, and we made a lot more than we should have,” Simmons said.
Ohio was led on the night by Simmons with 16 points and five rebounds, followed by Paveletzke with 16 points and four assists. These two had solid efforts on the night by the Zips, just simply outplayed the Bobcats from start to finish on Friday night, as Ohio was defeated 86-65 at home.
