Charleston Southern blinked and quickly found itself down by 10 points against the University of Akron on Friday night at Rhodes Arena.
That’s not a good position to be in against a talented Zips team hungry for a win after dropping two consecutive games on the road.
At least the Zips, who rolled to a 82-58 victory, should have been hungry for a win.
“I was worried about this game, really,” coach Keith Dambrot said, calling the Buccaneers dangerous. “... I was worried about the game because I thought we were on a little bit of a downer, maybe questioning ourselves a little bit because we didn’t shoot the ball well for two games.”
The Zips (4-2) took a 15-5 lead to open the game and never looked back against the Buccaneers (2-4). That isn’t to say everything went perfectly for UA, which was inconsistent until midway through the second half.
“I think it’s because you play so much, so quick [that] you’re not in fabulous condition. You don’t have a lot of guys [and] fatigue becomes a factor,” Dambrot said. “I’m not making excuses, but we should be a good shooting team.”
Josh Williams and Reggie McAdams led the Zips with 14 points each, followed by Aaron Jackson’s 13. Center Pat Forsythe had a team-high nine rebounds and added 11 points. Armel Potter led Southern with 18 points.
The Zips shot 41 percent from the floor and 43 percent on 3-pointers while allowing the Buccaneers to shoot 45 percent for the game.
With the Zips up 38-27 at halftime, the Buccaneers opened the second half with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to three with 17:57 to play.
That woke up the Zips, who used a 21-6 run over the next 6:37 to take an insurmountable lead (59-41).
“We got out in transition and made jump shots,” Dambrot said. “That’s the bottom line. We did a good job of finding our guys in transition, which is key for us.”
George M. Thomas can be reached at gmthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Zips blog at www.ohio.com/zips. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeorgeThomasABJ.