“So having played with him every day, it was definitely easier for me to take away some of his tendencies.” Zips have early impressive start to MAC season “It definitely helps a lot, just having recognized some of the things that he can do on offense and how gifted he is on offense,” Hankerson said. Hankerson acknowledged that the familiarity helped. That familiarity showed up as Hankerson pestered his former teammate anytime he was on him defensively, holding him to 10 points for the night. And Groce made a shrewd move by putting UA guard Trendon Hankerson, an NIU graduate transfer, on him. The Huskies had their leading scorer in Keshawn Williams, who is tied with Castaneda for second in the MAC, for the game. UA came into the game ranked second in the conference defensively, and Groce gave his team credit for the effort as the Zips held the Huskies to 35% shooting from the floor (18 of 51). The Akron Zips needed to play solid defense And obviously is a big part of who we are offensively, so ’Rique was able to do that and I thought some of the other guys stepped up certainly in absence. “We tried to make, regardless of whether is playing or not, we want to establish him. “Well, I don't know if he touched on everyone,” Groce said. He seemingly touched the ball on every offensive possession. On more than a few occasions, mostly when the Zips struggled in the first half, his misses came courtesy of unfavorable bounces. He shot 10 of 18 on his way to his career high. The Enrique Freeman factor came into play for Akronįreeman dominated on the low block with his jump hook from the right and left hands. He credited Castaneda with helping the four freshmen who played against the Huskies. And he was really engaged and great leadership,” Groce said. “ did a great job on the bench of talking to guys as they were coming in and out of the game. “I thought we did a great job stepping up as a team, and some of the young guys did a great job stepping up and filling that role and playing hard tonight.”Įven though he was absent with a hand injury, coach John Groce said Castaneda played an important role. When you have a guy out, it's kind of like a rally type of deal where everybody wants to get together and rally and play for that one guy,” he said. They got it as guard Greg Tribble produced only his second double-digit game of the with a season high of 16 points, and guard Nate Johnson added eight points. A 12-1 run to open the second half gave the Zips a 13-point lead and, seemingly, some breathing room.Īnd the Zips needed players other than Freeman offensively. To that point the Zips relied on Freeman's inside game until UA’s offensive shots started to fall. After trailing by four points with 5:14 in the first, UA flipped things with a 13-1 run to find their offensive flow. Other Akron Zips needed to fill Xavier Castaneda voidĬastaneda’s absence was clear from the beginning of the game as it took the Zips until deep into the first half to find any sort of offensive flow. There was a lot to like, and some things to clean up for the Zips. Zarique Nutter led the Huskies (4-10, 0-1) with 11 points. Zips forward Enrique Freeman posted a career high with 27 points and matched another with 15 rebounds, leading the teams in both categories. UA (9-5, 1-0) outscored the Huskies 48-25 in the second half to take control of the game, sailing to the win. Playing without guard Xavier Castaneda, who was tied for second in scoring in the Mid-American Conference, the University of Akron men’s basketball team shook off a slow start to dominate Northern Illinois 76-51 in the conference opener Tuesday night at Rhodes Arena.
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