The Zips take on Miami of Ohio

Akron (19-7, 9-3 MAC) will visit Miami (Ohio) (11-14, 8-4 MAC) Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m.
at the Millett Hall Arena in Oxford, Ohio

Television: None

Webcast/Audio Stream/Live Statistics:
Webcast not available, live statistics available at MURedHawks.com (free of charge). Audio stream available through subscription at GoZips.com.

Radio: Akron-ISP Sports Network – SportsRadio 1350 AM (WARF) in Akron and on the Internet at GoZips.com. Steve French (play-by-play) and Joe Dunn (analyst) (6:30 p.m. ET airtime).

Akron Coach Keith Dambrot (Akron '82):
Is in his sixth season at the helm for the Zips, maintaining a 134-58 (.698) mark in that time. Both his win total and win percentage rank third all-time in program history (178 wins is second). Dambrot is 242-128 (.654) in his 12th season as a collegiate head coach. He is 8-9 all-time versus Miami (8-5 as coach at Akron).

The Series: Miami leads the all-time series, 23-19, but Akron won this season's earlier meeting 69-49 at Rhodes Arena (Jan. 20) and has claimed three straight and five of the last six overall match ups. That stretch dates to the 2007-08 campaign, when the Zips swept the pair of regular-season meetings and won in Oxford (56-52 on Feb. 19, 2008) for the first time since Jan. 24, 2001 (56-46). The Zips went 2-1 versus the RedHawks last season, including a 73-63 win in the MAC Tournament quarterfinal round (March 12, 2009). UA lost 64-51 in overtime in its last visit to Millett Hall (Jan. 10, 2009).
 
Up Next: Akron visits VCU on Saturday as part of ESPNU BracketBusters (on ESPNU at 4 p.m. ET).

Streaks, Storylines, Sidebars...

Akron is playing on the road for the third time in four games and is in the midst of a five-game stretch in which it plays at home once (91-88 double-overtime win over Ohio on Sunday). The away-heavy stretch concludes on Saturday with an ESPNU BracketBusters contest at VCU (4 p.m. ET on ESPNU). UA then closes the regular-season with two of its last three at home.

The Zips sit in a first-place tie with Kent State (18-8, 9-3) in the MAC East Division standings, and have won a league-best 19 games (10-4 nonleague).

Akron has won four straight, six of its last seven and seven of its last nine games. The squad posted a season-long six-game win streak in December.

UA is 5-3 in road games (4-2 MAC) this season and has won three-straight away contests (won 79-70 at Western Michigan on Jan. 27; 75-70 in OT at Ball State on Feb. 6; 56-52 at Central Michigan on Feb. 9). The Zips are a combined 7-4 in away/neutral games. UA went 4-4 on the road against MAC competition last season.

UA looks to achieve its fifth-straight 20-win season (23-10 in 2005-06, 26-7 in '06-07, 24-11 in '07-08, 23-13 in '08-09). It would be just the second time in program history that has occurred (first in Division I era, dating to 1980-81) and first since the 1962-63 through 1966-67 squads did so under head coach Tony Laterza. The Zips have won at least 19 games in each of head coach Keith Dambrot's six seasons at the helm (19-10 in '04-05).

The Zips are ranked No. 12 in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 (comes out each Monday throughout the season). The squad was ranked No. 8 in the poll's preseason edition and was listing No. 19 last week.

Chris McKnight (25 points, 18 rebounds – both career highs) and Jimmy Conyers (20 points, 11 rebounds) led UA in its 91-88 2OT win over Ohio on Sunday. The Bobcats forced both extra sessions by hitting shots in the closing seconds of regulation and the first OT, but the Zips converted 10-of-12 attempts (83.3 percent) from the foul line after regulation to outlast them.

The Zips use a 10-man rotation (seven players average over 16 minutes) and have just one player averaging double-figure points (Brett McKnight, 10.3 ppg, 22nd in MAC), while six average between 9.7 and 7.3 ppg.

Akron leads the MAC in field goal percentage (44.1 percent) and scoring margin (+7.2, 73rd nationally) and is third in scoring (70.8 ppg); while also ranking second in field goal percentage defense (allowing 40.3 percent, 53rd nationally) and third in scoring defense (allowing 63.6 ppg, 62nd nationally).

UA has held 10 opponents to 59 or fewer points this season (going 10-0 in those games) and has kept four league foes to 52 or fewer points (4-0 in those games).

Nine Zips' opponents have scored 70 points or more (UA is 5-4 in those games, and have won four straight in that situation). Three of UA's last four opponents have scored 70 or more (Central Michigan - 52).

In four of its last five and seven of its last nine games, Akron has shot over 73 percent from the line, after doing so only twice in the first 17 games of the campaign (went 12-for-12 at Central Michigan on Feb. 9 and 23-for-26/63.9 percent versus Ohio on Sunday). The Zips average 71.1 percent from the charity stripe in MAC play, which ranks fourth in MAC-only games.

Akron has held the advantage on the boards 19 times this season and in four of the last five games (Ohio owned a 55-49 margin on Sunday). The Zips are 14-5 this season when they outrebound an opponent and 6-0 when doing so by double digits (Zips are 4-2 when they get outboarded). UA's +3.2 rebounding margin ranks second in the league and 79th nationally.