Ohio meets Akron in MAC quarters

No. 8 seed Ohio (17-15, 9-10) vs. No. 1 seed Akron (24-7, 14-4)

Mid-American Conference Tourney Quarterfinals, Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Cleveland; Thursday, 11 p.m. EDT

BOTTOM LINE: Ohio is set to face off against Akron in the MAC tournament quarterfinals. Akron won both of the regular season matchups earlier this season. The teams last played on March 3, when Ohio made just 11 free throws on 16 attempts while the Zips hit 20 of 25 en route to the 74-67 victory.

SUPER SENIORS: Ohio’s Jason Preston, Jordan Dartis and Sylvester Ogbonda have combined to score 49 percent of the team’s points this season, including 63 percent of all Bobcats scoring over the last five games.

CREATING OFFENSE: Preston has directly created 59 percent of all Ohio field goals over the last three games. Preston has 24 field goals and 22 assists in those games.

UNDEFEATED WHEN: The Zips are 18-0 when they hold opposing teams to 67 points or fewer and 6-7 when opponents exceed 67 points. The Bobcats are 7-0 when the team records at least 10 steals and 10-15 when falling short of that total.

PASSING FOR POINTS: The Bobcats have recently used assists to create buckets more often than the Zips. Akron has 37 assists on 75 field goals (49.3 percent) over its previous three outings while Ohio has assists on 49 of 78 field goals (62.8 percent) during its past three games.

DID YOU KNOW: Akron has made 9.3 3-pointers per game as a team this year, which is most among MAC teams.