Akron Hangs on, Beats Oral Roberts

There's an overused phrase in basketball people use for ugly wins: "a win is a win." That statement was true tonight, as it wasn't pretty for Akron but it still counts in the win column.

Oral Roberts is a good team and has been in every game this season, including games against Wisconsin and Wichita State. They were led by Shawn Glover who had 21 points, but also had two costly traveling calls in the last few minutes when the game was still up for grabs.

The game was played pretty evenly throughout the first half with Akron maintaining a steady four to five point lead. Oral Roberts took their first lead of the game at 51-50 with ten minutes left and it looked like Akron was starting to struggle on the defensive end. The Zips then went on an 8-2 run over the next minute keyed by two three pointers from Reggie McAdams. Glover brought the Golden Eagles back to within two with a dunk at the seven minute mark, but that's all the closer they would get.

Demetrius Treadwell led the Zips with eighteen points and eleven rebounds. Quincy Diggs also had a great game with nineteen and seven. What may have been the most telling statistic was bench scoring, where Akron outscored Oral Roberts 42-12. The only real negative was free throw shooting, where Akron just hit 56% from the line (18-32). The Golden Eagles were not much better, only shooting 61% (17-28).

The Zips improve their record to 4-2 and turn right around with a home game Wednesday against Detroit. That'll be the third game in five days, so it'll be interesting to see how much energy they have against the Titans.