Cleveland, Ohio -- With the score tied at 68 and 3.2 seconds remaining, Sophomore guard Greg Tribble (Cincinnati, Ohio) tallied the winning points on a pair of free throws to lift the Zips past Buffalo with a final score of 70-68 in the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament on Thursday, March 10 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
 
The Zips (22-9, 14-6 MAC) advance to the MAC Tournament semifinals to square off against first-seeded Toledo in the semifinal game on Friday, March 11. The showdown will tip-off at 5:00 p.m.
 
Sophomore forward Ali Ali (Kendallville, Ind.) paced the Zips with a 19-points, three-rebound, and three-steal performance. Junior point guard Xavier Castaneda (Chicago, Ill.) and sophomore Mikal Dawson  (Huntington, W Va.) 15 and 14 points, respectively. Jeenathan Williams directed three Buffalo players in double figures with 15 points.
 
With the game notched at 68 and 22 seconds on the clock, a three-pointer by Buffalo's Keishawn Brewton didn't go and gave the Zips' offense a chance to win the game. With 3.2 seconds left, Tribble was fouled on a layup that sent him to the charity stripe to secure the victory for Akron.
 
It was a comeback with roots in the first half, but one that pick up speed after intermission.
Akron blew the game open coming out of the break with a fierce 11-1 run topped by back-to-back three-pointers by the Zips. Ali gave Akron its first lead since the opening minutes of the game with a three-pointer, seconds later the lead grew to six after triples from Dawson and Ali put the Zips ahead, 43-37. That edge grew to 10 on a layup by Dawson.
 
Buffalo was able to put together a 10-2 run that lasted over three minutes that saw the Zips' 10-points lead turn into a 3-point deficit (65-62) with 2:41 to play.
 
The story was much different in the opening frame. After struggling offensively- including a stretch of 5:00 without a field goal make midway through the first half-the Zips found themselves down 26-18 before a layup by Castaneda ended that drought. Akron closed out the first half with a 6-0 run and tied the score 32-all at the break thanks to a buzzer-beating three from Castaneda.  
 
Akron finished the game shooting 41.5 percent (22-of-53) from the floor and knocked down 52.9 percent (9-of-17) of shots beyond the arc. The Bulls edged the Zips on the battle of the boards, 35-32.