The Zips and the Golden Flashes faced off this past Saturday in Kent, Ohio; the Flashes came out victorious. 

The Zips came out looking as good as they have all season, pushing their lead to 13 early in the first few minutes. This lead did not last, as the remainder of the game was a closely battled contest.

The Flashes cut Akron’s lead to only three points until they ended the half on a 4-0 run. This helped Kent State take a 32-31 lead into halftime.

Before the teams could get to the locker rooms, there was a slight altercation between Kent State’s De La Rose and Akron’s Eric Parrish. The referees went to the monitors for a review before giving both personal fouls.

The entire second half proved to be a game of runs. Akron fell behind as Kent State scored nine straight points. Malcolm Duvivier answered back with 12 points of his own, taking back the lead, 53-51.

Malcolm Duvivier proved that he was no longer in a slump as he led the Zips in scoring with  27 points. This coming on the heels of a 25 point performance last game and reached 1,000 points for his career.

Matching him every step of the way was Jaylin Walker. The junior guard went for 27 points as he got hot from the three-point line, making 7 of 12. After these two scorers canceled each other out, the remainder of the Zips scoring came from Daniel Utomi, who scored 20 points.

Just as the Zips looked to take control with a 58-54 lead, Kent’s Jalen Avery took over the game. The junior guard seemed unstoppable as he scored two three-pointers, before scoring back-to-back three-point plays. The Zips had no response to this one man run.

The Zips, in the end, fell to their arch rival 78-68.The rematch will take place on Friday, March 2 at the JAR.

The next game for Akron is on Tuesday, Feb. 20 at Bowling Green with a 7 p.m. tipoff. For more information on tickets and game times, check out gozips.com.