Akron advanced past the Ohio Bobcats to the Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship game off a legendary performance from MAC player of the year Enrique Freeman.
The Zips defeated the Bobcats in a final score of 65-62.
Ohio started the first half with a Miles Brown layup, sinking the first points of the night for the Bobcats, up 2-0.
As the opening minutes began, Akron, was scoreless for three minutes and nine seconds as Ohio went on a 5-0 run, as both teams headed into a media timeout.
Headed out of the timeout, Shereef Mitchell hit a spin move and faked a pass to get an Akron defender off of him, laying the ball in for two, Ohio up 13-10.
With five minutes remaining in the first half, Shammah Scott hit a jumper in transition to tie the game 16-16 for the Zips. AJ Clayton quickly took the lead back for the Bobcats, hitting a quick three for a 19-16 lead.
With two minutes remaining in the first half, Scott intercepted a pass for the Zips, looking like he had a wide-open path to the rim, Jaylin Hunter came out of nowhere to swat the ball out of his hands, hitting a three, extending the Bobcats lead even more.
The Bobcats entered halftime up 26-16 against the Zips.
The first half of the game was slow and methodical, the second half quickly became a slugfest.
Both teams battled for momentum- the Zips and Akron headed into an absolute war.
Two back-to-back Akron threes from Sammy Hunter got the Zip’s major momentum, now down just two points to the Bobcats- putting the Zips up 36-33.
MAC player of the year Freeman heading to the free throw line, hit both free throws to take a 43-42 Akron lead, to take the Zips first lead since the opening minutes.
It was at this moment that Freeman took over the rest of the game.
Freeman missed his last free throw, then jumped over to underneath the rim, grabbed his own miss, and put it in for two, putting Akron up one, 49-48.
In the final minutes of the game, Freeman took over, converting several clutch free throws and grabbing multiple rebounds.
In the final seconds, Hunter was unable to hit the final shot to tie the game to send it to overtime and Akron defeated Ohio 65-62 en route to the MAC Championship.
Freeman grabbed 21 rebounds, a new MAC tournament record for rebounds in a single game, and became the leading rebounder in Akron history.
Akron advances to the championship game, where they will face the Kent State Golden Flashes on Saturday, at 7:30 p.m.
