On Friday afternoon, The No. 15 seeded University of Akron men’s basketball team took on the No. 2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second round of the Southwest Regional NCAA Tournament game at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.

The Zips (23-13), however, were defeated 69-56 by the Fighting Irish (27-6), but don’t let the score seem deceiving. UA proved they belonged in the NCAA Tournament, as they went into the half down by just four.

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On Friday afternoon, The No. 15 seeded University of Akron men’s basketball team took on the No. 2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second round of the Southwest Regional NCAA Tournament game at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.

The Zips (23-13), however, were defeated 69-56 by the Fighting Irish (27-6), but don’t let the score seem deceiving. UA proved they belonged in the NCAA Tournament, as they went into the half down by just four.

 The Irish entered the second half scoring nine points in the first few minutes as Tyrone Nash nailed a three-point shot to ignite the offense, while Scott Martin added two baskets alongside Carlton Smith’s lone basket.

I am disappointed we didn’t win, really. We competed hard enough to win, said UA Head Coach Keith Dambrot, whose team was in the tournament for the second time in three years.

We played good enough defense to win against a pretty good offensive team. We just didn’t shoot the ball well enough to win.

The Fighting Irish were led offensively by Ben Hansbrough with 15 points. Tim Abromaitis added 14 points while Martin had 11. Smith tied his high with 14 rebounds.

It took us a long time to kind of calm down. I’m glad the halftime was 20 minutes, because we needed all of it just to kind of ratchet our blood pressure down a little bit, Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey said. We were better in the second half because our tempo was better

Hansbrough, who was the Big East Player of the Year, was just 4-for-11 from the field but 6-for-6 from the line with six assists.

The Zips entered this matchup winning 11 of their previous 13 games, as they defeated Kent State in the Mid-American Conference Tournament to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history.

UA’s defense kept up with Notre Dame’s motion offense as center Zeke Marshall blocked four shots and changed the shot selections of others on the Irish offense.

We fought back. We just couldn’t put enough baskets together on a continuous basis to win, Dambrot said. That’s what a mid-major has to do to beat a high major with a seed that high…you have to shoot the ball better than that.

However, Marshall was unable to convert on offense, as he was 2-for-13 from the floor and recorded only five points in the game.

I had four two-foot layups I missed in the early part of the game. I don’t really recall that it was their defense that caused me to miss. It was just me missing, said Marshall.

With the loss, the Zips were sent home and Notre Dame was set to face Florida State in the second round of the playoffs, where they fell 71-57.

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