“By Vincent Dorsey [email protected] The University of Akron’s men’s basketball cruised to their fourth consecutive win with a 64-43 rout of the Central Michigan Chippewas at Rhodes Arena Saturday. The Zips (13-8, 4-3 Mid-American Conference) scored the game’s first seven points and held the Chippewas scoreless until junior guard Jordan Blitzer hit a pair of free throws with 13:53 in the first half.”
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The University of Akron’s men’s basketball cruised to their fourth consecutive win with a 64-43 rout of the Central Michigan Chippewas at Rhodes Arena Saturday.

The Zips (13-8, 4-3 Mid-American Conference) scored the game’s first seven points and held the Chippewas scoreless until junior guard Jordan Blitzer hit a pair of free throws with 13:53 in the first half.

CMU would cut the UA advantage to 7-5, but that’s the closest the Chippewas would get in the one-sided affair.

After shooting 47.8 percent from the field in their home win against Ohio University on Thursday, the Chippewas shot only 32.6 percent from the field against the Zips. CMU’s 14 first-half points was the second-lowest by a UA opponent in a half this season and their game total ranks third-lowest.

On offense, CMU used most of the shot clock each possession, hoping to limit UA’s scoring opportunities.

He [CMU coach Ernie Zeigler] tried to keep it within 10 or 12, which is pretty smart on the road, hoping we’d make mistakes in the end, UA fifth-year head coach Dambrot said.

The Chippewas’ methodical approach coupled with the teams being whistled for a combined 53 fouls provided a slowed-paced game.

That was the longest game in the history of mankind, Dambrot joked at the start of his postgame news conference.

The Zips head coach said that his team was able to play solid defense at the end of each possession.

You worry about getting lulled to sleep when someone holds the ball on you, Dambrot said. We played well in the last 15 seconds of the shot clock.

The next Zips home game will be against Western Michigan on Sunday at 2 p.m.

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