When you hold a team’s top player scoreless, you expect to get a win, especially on your home court.
However, that wasn’t the case for the Falcons in last night’s game against Akron despite holding Zip’s forward Darryl Peterson without a point on the night as the Zips got some unlikely help to steal a big Mid-American Conference road win.
For the Zips, it was one of their biggest road wins of the year as it has been tough for MAC teams to win on the road all season.
The combined road record for MAC teams coming in to last night was 17-46.
“We talked a lot about beating a good team on the road and winning in a difficult environment,” Akron head coach Keith Dambrot said. “Our guys understood that we had to make that jump to be a contending program, so from that standpoint this win was big for our program and big for our guys.”
It was a win keyed by big play from guards Mario Collins, who had a career-high 13 points on the night and Dru Joyce, who had nine points including the game-winning lay-up with 0.2 left on the clock.
Collins, who averaged just 3.2 points per game, scored seven points alone in the first half and assisted on three other baskets. His play helped lead Akron on a 29-14 run to close out the second part of the first half and take a 39-34 halftime lead after trailing by as much as 12.
He was helped by Joyce, who also had seven first half points and an assist.
Making up for Peterson’s lack of production up front were forwards Bubba Walther and Romeo Travis. Walther went 3-of-5 from the three point line on the night and contributed a team-high 15 points, while Travis contributed 13 despite BG holding him to just two first half points.
“Our main players had rough nights, Darryl had a rough night and Romeo wasn’t very good for two-thirds of the game and then all of a sudden he came to life,” Dambrot said. “Mario Collins gave us a huge lift he was so good defensively that he just turned the game around. Then when he was good on offense, he was really good.”
Though he was proud of his team for the way they fought and competed on the night, head coach Dan Dakich also knew how big the contributions were for the Zips.
“We held their leading scorer to nothing, but they had guys step up for them,” Dakich said. “Collins really stepped up, Travis at the end was kind of dominating the game and Bubba Walther with the two threes in the first half was huge.”
Peterson had been leading Akron in scoring on the year with 15.6 points per game. He was held scoreless on the night though, finishing 0-4 from the floor.
“John Reimold is a pretty tough kid and I thought he did a good job on Darryl all night,” Dambrot said. “He (Peterson) just couldn’t get it going on the night.”
In the end, the contributions from Akron’s unlikely sources were too much for the Falcons.
