CLEVELAND - The No. 2 Akron Zips and fourth-seeded Toledo Rockets will battle for the 2026 MAC Men's Basketball Title on Saturday, March 14 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
Saturday, March 14th -- MAC Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship Game
Game 7: No. 2 Akron (27-6, 16-2 MAC) vs. No. 4 Toledo (17-14, 9-9 MAC),
Eric Rothman (PxP), Mark Beier (Analyst) Live on ESPN2 | Live Stats | 8 PM ET
No. 2 Akron: No. 2 Akron battles No. 4 Toledo in the Mid-American Conference Championship on Saturday. The Zips enter the final round of the MAC Tournament with a 28-5 overall record. The Blue and Gold went 17-1 in conference action.
Akron recently defeated No. 3 Kent State, 75-68, in the semifinals. Three Zips scored in double figures, with Tavari Johnson and Shammah Scott scoring 18 and Evan Mahaffey scoring 16.
Tavari Johnson leads the Zips in points (20.3) and assists (5.0). Amani Lyles leads the Blue and Gold in rebounds (7.8). Evan Mahaffey leads the way in steals (1.8). Mahaffey and Lyles share the lead for blocks (23).
Akron is scoring 88.6 points per game while outscoring its opponents by 15.2 points. The Zips shoot .504 from the field while shooting .382 from beyond the arc and average 10.9 3s per game. The Blue and Gold hold a .760 ft percentage while averaging 38.1 rebounds, 18.5 assists, 11.0 turnovers, 7.6 steals and 3.1 blocks per game.
The Zips rank in the top five in the MAC in scoring offense (2nd - 891.), scoring defense (4th - 73.6), scoring margin (2nd - +15.2), fg pct (1st - .504), opp fg pct (1st - .419), 3pt pct (3rd - .382), 3s made per game (1st - 10.9), ft pct (1st - .760), rebounds (2nd. - 38.1), opp rebounds (2nd - 33.1), off rebounds (4th - 11.3), def rebounds (2nd - 26.8), turnover margin (2nd - +2.55), assist-turnover ratio (1st - +1.68), assists (18.55) and steals (3rd - 7.61).
No. 6 Toledo: The Toledo men's basketball team (19-14, 11-7 MAC) will make its eighth championship game appearance when it faces No. 2 seed Akron (28-5, 17-1 MAC) tonight in the 2026 Mid-American Conference Tournament. The contest will be televised nationally on ESPN2 and tip off in Cleveland's Rocket Arena at 8:00 p.m.
No. 4 seed Toledo advanced to the title game with victories over No. 5 seed Bowling Green (77-76) and No. 8 seed UMass (77-67). Akron defeated No. 7 seed Buffalo (73-70) and No. 3 seed Kent State (75-68).
The Rockets suffered a 91-81 setback to the Zips in Rhodes Arena on Jan. 27 in the lone meeting between the two teams. Toledo shot 53.6% from the field and used a red-hot first half to take a 49–41 lead into the break. The back-and-forth contest featured 20 lead changes and was tied at 75-all with four minutes left before the Zips pulled away.
Sonny Wilson scored a team-high 22 points with eight assists and Leroy Blyden Jr. added 20 to lead UT offensively. Jaylan Ouwinga joined Blyden and Wilson in double figures, finishing with 13 points. Sean Craig topped the Rockets with nine rebounds.
Wilson's 18 points topped four Rockets in double figures in last night's semifinal win over UMass. Also in double digits for UT were Mynor Strong (17), Craig (15) and Blyden (12). Toledo shot 57.4% from the field, including a sizzling 60.7% in the first half, while holding UMass to a 41.3 FG% and just 4-of-21 (19.0%) from long range.
UT is led by the backcourt duo of Wilson (17.3 ppg) and Blyden (16.3 ppg) along with the frontcourt tandem of Sean Craig (11.7 ppg) and Austin Parks (10.6 ppg). Blyden leads all MAC freshmen in scoring, while Wilson and Blyden are dishing out a team-high 4.5 apg.
