“You have to understand the game,” Miami coach John Cooper said about the slightly built, 6-foot-1, 161-pound Weathers, who went into the game leading the RedHawks with an average of 18.2 points per game. “He’s got to do a better job of playing off two feet and taking the bump. He’s not the biggest guy, but you also can’t get frustrated and take the game on. You’ve got to maintain your wits.”
Logan McLane turned in a more favorable double-double, 14 points and 10 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to keep the RedHawks (8-9, 1-3 Mid-American Conference East Division) from losing their third straight, all in the MAC.
“It’s a little bit of a mixed feeling,” McLane said. “We’re down because we lost, but we know this game showed that we can play against anybody in the MAC if we stick to our principles and play our game.”
Junior forward Abdoulaye Harouna also scored 12 points for Miami while redshirt freshman wing-forward Daniel Utomi led four players in double figures with a career-high 15 points — all in the first half, on five 3-pointers — for Akron (14-3, 4-0), the defending MAC regular-season champion and the team picked in a preseason media-coaches poll to again win the conference.
McLane gave Miami its biggest lead, 63-58, with a tip-in of his own miss after he’d grabbed an offense rebound with 6:24 left in the game, but burly, 6-10, 290-pound Akron senior center Isaiah Johnson snapped a 66-66 tie with a layup that gave the Zips the lead for good with 2:25 left. They clinched the win by sinking six of eight free throws.
“Hats off to (Akron),” Cooper said. “They found a way to close it out down the stretch.”
The Zips, who entered leading the MAC with a .483 field-goal percentage and .389 3-point mark, sank their first six shots, including four 3-pointers, on their way to a 16-4 lead. The RedHawks started chipping away and, behind Harouna’s 10 points, cut the Akron lead to 42-41 at halftime. Weathers capped the comeback by penetrating to the basket and finding McLane with a bounce pass. The 6-foot-9 junior forward, who had a layup blocked earlier, took the time to fake a shot before stepping to the other side of the rim and sinking a layup at the buzzer.
Miami returns to the road for two straight games against MAC West competition, Tuesday at Northern Illinois and Saturday at Central Michigan. The RedHawks, who beat NIU, 69-67, in their MAC opener on Jan. 3, return home to face Buffalo on Jan. 24 at 7 p.m.
• In the afternoon’s opener, the Buffalo women road an 18-1 third-quarter run to a 49-38 lead on the way to a 68-51 MAC East win. JoAnna Smith led three Bulls in double figures with a game-high 22 points while freshman guard Lauren Dickerson scored 20 points to lead the RedHawks (7-11, 1-4), who’ve lost four of their last five. Buffalo improved to 12-4 and 2-3 in the MAC East. Freshman forward Ssvannah Kluesner also reached double figures with 10 points.
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