When a team who has relied on comeback attempts as much as the Falcon men’s basketball team has lately, not all will work in your favor. That was the case on Tuesday night in the nail biter against the Akron Zips with the final score of 79-81, in favor of Akron.
“Akron once again out toughed us,” Falcons coach Michael Huger said. “They were tougher than us on both ends of the court and that was the difference in the game. We were not tough enough defensively. They were able to score at will and we were not able to get stops.”
The Falcons went into the half down by three, and kept mounting comeback attempts in the second, but eventually they fell just short.
A major reason this one went in favor of the Zips was the play of their sophomore forward Daniel Utomi who totaled 29 points, five assists and three steals. The Falcons did not have an answer for Utomi on defense.
“We could have done a better job of guarding him. That’s it. Defense. We have got to guard him,” Huger said. “Have got to take pride in your defense. We didn’t come to fight on the defensive end. It’s a fight on the defensive end and that’s the difference.”
The Falcons were lead in this one by sophomore guard Dylan Frye who had 24 points, on a career-high five made threes.
Frye would get a good look for a game winner as time ran out but his shot was just long.
As always, the Falcons were paced down low by junior forward Demajeo Wiggins, who earned his 13th double-double of the season as he totaled 17 points to go with 12 boards, a block and a steal.
The one thing which Coach Huger kept repeating after the game was defense.
“Defensively they were able to stop us with a smaller lineup,” Huger said. “We weren’t able to take advantage of layups that we got. We weren’t able to take advantage of wide open threes that we got. On the other end they were able to take advantage of us with Utomi at the four. He was able to score on all of our guys. That back-cut that they run, we knew what they were doing, we know-how to take it away, and yet we weren’t tough enough to take it away and they were able to score.”
It was evident that Coach Huger kept attempting to get the crowd into this one to give his team that extra advantage on the defensive end, and it did lead to a few Akron turnovers, but it was not enough in this contest.
The Falcons next game will be on Saturday, on the road, against the Kent State Golden Flashes.
