The University of Akron men’s basketball team disposed of the Hiram Terriers with all due haste.
For all practical purposes, the Zips had the game won by the 12-minute mark of the first half en route to a 100-30 victory. It simply didn’t take long before the Division I Zips enjoyed significant advantage in every statistical category over the Division III Terriers.
By the end of the night all of those numbers were even more lopsided. Had they been facing one of their Mid-American Conference brethren, the Zips might have been in trouble. Although much of the Terriers’ offensive malaise came courtesy of the UA defense, Hiram missed its fair share of wide-open shots.
The Terriers didn’t score a point from the floor or the free-throw line from 15:47 to 6:24 of the first half. A new drought began shortly after with the Terriers not scoring again until the 2:24 mark.
The Zips, however, cannot claim this game to be a thing of beauty, at least offensively. For the game, Akron shot 48 percent from the floor while holding the Terriers to 17 percent shooting.
“I thought we were just OK defensively, as crazy as it sounds,” Zips coach Keith Dambrot said. “We have to play better than that. In fairness to our guys, when you get up you don’t emphasize that too much.”
Aaron Jackson scored a game-high 16 points for UA. Jake Kretzer followed with 15 points and big man Isaiah Johnson led the team with 14 rebounds.
As a team, the Zips crushed the Terriers 65-34 on boards.
In the grand scheme, Dambrot said, the victory is one the Zips should file away in their mental calendars as a job well done and worry instead about what’s coming this week.
The Zips will take part in the Preseason NIT beginning Wednesday, when they travel to Arkansas to play the Razorbacks on their home court.
Four days later, they head to Philadelphia to play Villanova before returning home to play Green Bay at Rhodes Arena.
“The good thing is these games will be good for us to develop,” Dambrot said. “We’ll see where we are. We’ll see how we respond when we get hit in the mouth. We’ll see how we respond when we play well. Then we have to make sure we keep continuing to grow. That’s the bottom line.”
George M. Thomas can be reached at gmthomas@thebeaconjournal.com.