The young pack of kittens that the Akron Zips trounced back in January has matured quickly, and the grown-up Bobcats will be seeking revenge tonight.
The Ohio men's basketball team (13-8 overall, 8-5 Mid-American Conference) is coming off a four-point victory against Miami and will host the Zips (14-7, 8-5 MAC) aiming to even the record.
The Bobcats would also like to add some space to the MAC East standings, which currently have four teams at eight wins.
Coach Tim O'Shea said his team played poorly in the first meeting, but today's game should be more competitive.
Both teams are coming off big wins
are playing well and have almost identical records O'Shea said. This game has all the makings to be a great college basketball game.
In the first meeting between Akron and Ohio, the score was tied at halftime, but the Zips took control with a late run and ended up defeating the poor-shooting Bobcats by 12.
That game we didn't play well in any category and it was probably the worst game of our season O'Shea said. It definitely wasn't a good game for the Bobcats.
Guard Mychal Green, who is leading the Bobcats in scoring, was limited to eight points -tying his season low -and guard Jeremy Fears was held to only six points.
For the Zips, forward Darryl Peterson scored 15 and guard Dru Joyce followed with 14.
The Zips won the battle of the boards 41-27 and gave up fewer turnovers, a rare occurrence for the Bobcats, who force 16 turnovers per game and have a MAC-high plus-3.2 turnover margin.
Green said that Akron will be playing a much different team in the rematch.
We all talked about how that first game was our worst performance in the MAC
Green said. We're obviously playing a lot better right now and we're playing with a lot of intensity at home. The team knows each other better now and have gelled together.
Fears said that the problem with the first game was that the team wasn't operating the way it should.
We're going to have to execute our game plan on offense and defense
Fears said. We didn't come out prepared for the first game
but we are ready for this game.
The Bobcats will begin their prowl at 7 p.m. tonight in The Convo.
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Nick Miller
