Akron surges past Miami

RedHawks unable to recover from Zips’ second-half rally.

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 3:27 PM Sunday, January 8, 2012

OXFORD — A second half meltdown — and it wasn’t much of one — has struck another body blow to the Miami University basketball team.

Akron beat Miami 65-60 Saturday night in the RedHawks’ conference season opener at Millett Hall after the Zips, who had trailed most of the game, came back with a 10-2 run midway through the half.

“We felt like we played a pretty good game, and in the second half we basically just crumbled,” said Miami senior forward Julian Mavunga, who led all players with 23 points and 14 rebounds, his ninth double-double of the season.

“We made some mistakes and they definitely hurt us off our mistakes,” he added.

Akron (9-6 overall, 1-0 MAC) outscored Miami 25-6 in points off turnovers.

“When we lost to Wright State, to Evansville, this game, we just didn’t have that resiliency,” Mavunga said. “At that 10- or 11-minute mark, you just have to pull up your socks and pull together as a team, and we didn’t do that tonight.

“That’s been our Achilles heel — we just can’t finish games,” he said.

Mavunga was asked whether the problem for Miami (4-9 overall) seems to be physical or mental.

“Maybe it’s a little bit of both,” he said. “I don’t think we have the same energy we do in the second half that we do in the first half.”

Miami coach Charlie Coles, who has seen his team lose two key players (Allen Roberts and Bill Edwards) to season-ending surgery, took some blame for what happened in the closing minutes, when Akron closed out the win with 7-1 run (with all seven points coming from the foul line).

“Boy, my bad,” he said. “I think I cost us offensively late in the game. We’re not the kind of team that can go 1-on-1 (driving toward the basket).”

A short jumper by Jon Harris had tied the game at 58-58 with 1:40 remaining, but Miami’s comeback attempt was derailed by a turnover at the 33-second mark and a missed shot by Harris while driving against 7-foot center Zeke Marshall with 25 seconds left.

“We should just go try to dunk it on him,” Coles said of Marshall, Akron’s leading scorer and second-leading rebounder who was held to two points and no rebounds, but who did block three shots. “Don’t try to lay it up. Zeke Marshall doesn’t go for that.”

Back-to-back 3-point baskets by Mavunga and Josh Sewell late in the first half helped give Miami a 29-25 lead at the break, and Mavunga opened the scoring in the second half with another 3-pointer to put the RedHawks ahead by seven. But they never could quite pull away from the Zips.

Akron’s inside onslaught began with a driving shot by Quincy Diggs with 10:54 remaining. Six of the Zips’ next seven baskets also came from within 3 feet of the basket.

“They ignored us,” Coles said, referring especially to Diggs, who led the Zips with 14 points off the bench and who scored on four lay-ups over the final 11 minutes. “You can’t let a guy ignore you if you’re guarding him. It’s like, hey, that (defender) just isn’t there.”

Freshman guard Brian Sullivan had another good performance for the RedHawks, coming off the bench to score 14 points after hitting a career-high 24 in the 69-62 loss at Vanderbilt on Jan. 2. Josh Sewell added nine points, also off the bench, on 5-of-7 shooting from the field.

Brian Walsh scored 13 points for Akron, connecting on 3-of-4 shots from the 3-point arc, and Nick Harney had 11 points.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or Pete.Conrad@coxinc.com.