Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
AKRON
Zips Defeat BGSU, 83-62
January 14, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 14, 2007
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Bowling Green, Ohio - Visting Akron used a 25-3 spurt midway through the second half to pull away and defeate Bowling Green, 83-62, in a Mid-American Conference game Saturday at Anderson Arena. The Zips improved to 11-4 and 2-1 in the league, while the Falcons fell to 10-6 and 1-2.
The teams have a history of playing close games and for the first 24 minutes it appeared another tight one was in store.
"They just converted on every missed shot and their conversion defense was a killer," said BGSU Coach Dan Dakich. "They beat us down the floor and I am not sure how many point they got in transition. We never had them stopped in the second half. When we took the lead at 44-42, I am not sure how long we hung on to the 44 but it was a long time and we just never got a stop."
Three times in the first half, Akron was able to build an eight-point lead with the last coming at 25-17 with 8:34 to go. Back to back baskets by sophomore Erik Marschall cut the lead to 25-21 with 7:11 left in the half. BGSU cut it to 27-25 on a jumper by Samarco and 29-27 on another Marschall bucket. The Falcons tied the score at 31-31 on a 15-footer by Samarco with 1:40 to go in the half and following a steal by junior Ryne Hamblet, the Falcons regained the lead on a layup by Marschall with 1:27 left.
Akron regained the lead on a triple by Nate Linhart with 1:04 to go in the half, and Sims would give BGSU back the lead at 35-34 when he grabbed a Hamblet miss and put it back with 41 seconds to go. Two free throws by the Zips' Romeo Travis gave Akron a 36-35 halftime edge.
"I thought we had opportunities in the first half to put them away because we got Bowling Green turned over but we really never capitalized on it and they hung around well and had some momentum," said Akron Coach Keith Dambrot. We made a decision to spread the floor out a little bit more and to try to drive the ball which I think helped us."
Trailing 43-40 with 16:54 left in the game, Samarco hit the first of two free throws and on the second attempt, Nate Miller grabbed the offensive board and kicked it out to Samarco who drained a three-pointer to give the home team a 44-43 lead with 16:50 to go.
Akron's Nate Linhart would immediately go down and make a layup and the Zips began their game winning run which saw them build a 21-point lead with 8:59 remaining.
Samarco led the Falcons with 20 points and six rebounds. Miller had 15 points, seven rebounds and three steals and Marschall had nine points after making his first start since December 4.
"We had a pretty good crowd tonight and we just need to find a way to keep it up for forty minutes instead of twenty," said Marschall. "We have to practice hard tomorrow and Tuesday and get ready for Miami on Wednesday."
The Falcons will play their next two games on the road with contests at Miami on Wednesday and Kent State on Saturday.
