The Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball team (6-20, 3-10 MAC) dropped its fourth consecutive game on Tuesday, Feb. 14, when the University of Akron (18-8, 10-3 MAC) defeated EMU, 78-51, inside the George Gervin GameAbove Center. The Eagles posted a 6.7 percent three-point shooting percentage, their lowest of the season, as the team could only get one long ball to go through the net on 15 attempts.
Sophomore Emoni Bates would provide that lone three-pointer of the night for the Eagles and lead the team in scoring. Bates managed 13 points, dished out three assists, and blocked two shots. The 13 points were enough for the Ypsilanti native to eclipse the 500-point mark for the season. Bates now has 505 total points in the 2022-23 campaign and is just five points shy of moving into fifth all-time for scoring as a sophomore at EMU.
Bates faced his fair share of struggles simultaneously, however, as he turned the ball over four times and only posted a 23.1 percent shooting percentage from the floor.
Fellow sophomore, Noah Farrakhan, also broke into double-digits in the scoring column with 11 points. Farrakhan led the team in rebounding as well with five boards and tallied two helpers to keep his 38-game streak with at least one assist.
The Eagles would see an early 4-2 advantage only to see the Zips respond with an eight-point scoring burst of their own to go out in from 10-4. Akron also established its control of the glass in the opening sequence of the game, as the Zips collected seven offensive rebounds compared to the Eagles’ five total rebounds in the first seven minutes of action.
EMU fought back after falling into the six-point deficit and rallied to outscore Akron 10 points to three in the next six and a half minutes and reclaim the lead, 14-13. Albeit, this lead would only be for a brief moment because Akron would once again flip momentum, but this time the Zips would not give it back to the Eagles.
Akron would go on to outpace EMU 16 points to six for the remainder of the first half making the score 29-20 at the break.
Akron hit a stride both offensively and defensively coming out of intermission and was able to continue to build on their lead over the Eagles and eventually blow the game wide open. Akron recorded 17 offensive boards total in the game and dominated the rebound battle in general, outrebounding the Eagles 45-28. The Zips would ultimately go on to win the game by a score of 78-51.
Full game highlights featured on the ESPN app, as well as a post-game press conference from EMU coach Stan Heath are available below.
Highlights:
Press-Conference:
Next up, the Eastern Michigan men’s basketball team will travel to Kent, Ohio to take on Kent State University on Friday, Feb. 17, inside the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be streamed live on CBS Sports Network.
For more information on the Eastern Michigan men’s basketball team, you can listen to "TheBlockE Podcast" weekly for updates, more in-depth analysis, statistics, and more.
