Tuesday night at James A. Rhodes Arena marked the start of the first round of the men’s Mid-American Conference Tournament, as the No. 6-seeded Zips defeated No. 11 Eastern Michigan 67-53.

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Tuesday night at James A. Rhodes Arena marked the start of the first round of the men’s Mid-American Conference Tournament, as the No. 6-seeded Zips defeated No. 11 Eastern Michigan 67-53.

With the win, UA will now advance to the quarterfinal round at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio against the No. 3 Miami of Ohio Redhawks (16-15) on Thursday.

Leading the offensive attack for Akron was forward Nikola Cvetinovic with 13 points, six rebounds and three assists.

The Zips (20-11) had three other scorers in double digits with Brett McKnight scoring 11, while Darryl Roberts and Steve McNees had 10 each.

The Eagles (9-22) started the game on a 5-0 run before Akron’s cold streak finally ended, responding with a 12-4 run and taking the lead 12-9 at six and half minutes into the game.

This was a pretty standard MAC battle, said McNees. We had to grind it out the whole game, but we got the win.

In all, the Zips received five or more points from four players, shooting 49 percent from the floor (23-for-47) and 50 percent (4-for-8) from behind the arc as a team.

Akron’s defense limited the Eagles to just 37.3 percent (19-for-51) from the field, while containing EMU to 16 percent (4-for-25) from behind the three-point line.

Our best three point shooter was 1-for-8, said EMU’s sixth year Head Coach Charles Ramsey. We cut the lead to five and then started to turn the ball over. It’s how our season has kind of been in a nut shell.

Eastern Michigan was able to cut the lead to five in the start of the second half, but a lay-up by Cvetinovic and a block by Zeke Marshall, followed by a pair of Alex Abreu free throws put Akron back on top.

This is about what I expected, said UA Head Coach Keith Dambrot. We were a little heavy legged, I might have worked them too hard in practice, so will go easy on Wednesday.

Akron scored six straight points, making it the biggest lead of the game at 43-31 with under 14 minutes left in regulation.

Eastern Michigan cut the lead as low as six on three occasions during the second half, but Akron responded each time.

A Brett McClanahan three-ball and lay-ups from Roberts and McNees extended the Zips’ lead back to 12 with 3:25 to play. A 13-5 run by Akron sealed the game away.

Tuesday night marked the 137th career game played by McNees, tying the all-time UA career record held by Chris McKnight.

It was also a milestone for UA, as this victory marked the sixth straight year that the Zips have won 20 or more games in a season, making them one of only 18 teams in the country to do so in the last six seasons.

The Zips will continue their road to the MAC championship in the quarterfinals when they take on No. 3 Miami of Ohio Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.

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