AKRON – Akron scorched the nets with 63.6% shooting and ran away from Ohio 90-70 to open Mid-American Conference play Tuesday afternoon at James A. Rhodes Arena.

The Zips connected on 14 of 25 3-pointers, with Bryan Trimble Jr. going a perfect 6 of 6 for 22 points. Loren Cristian Jackson was 5 of 10 from deep and scored 21 points with eight assists, and Maishe Dailey hit 3 of 4 3-pointers and scored 16 points.

Akron (3-1, 1-0 MAC) had been just 10 of 52 on 3-pointers in its previous two games combined.

Jason Preston had 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead Ohio (4-3, 0-1 MAC). Lunden McDay and Ben Vander Plas had 11 points each, and Ben Roderick finished with 10 points.

The Zips connected on a trio of 3-pointers early and took an 11-2 lead. The Bobcats battled back to tie the game at 15 on a McDay jumper and then again at 17 on a Dwight Wilson III layup, but it was all Zips after that.

"It was a disappointing effort from the start," Ohio coach Jeff Boals said. "We talked about getting off to a good start in the first war, and we were down 11-4. I really thought that set the tone for the whole game."

Leading 29-25 with four minutes remaining in the first half, Akron used a 12-3 run capped by a Cristian Jackson 3-pointer to go up 41-28 and then took a 44-34 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Daily began the second half by connecting from long range, and Trimble added a layup to push the Akron advantage to 15. Ohio got back within 10 on a McDay 3-pointer, but Trimble answered with a jumper and then a layup. A Trimble 3-pointer made it 56-41 with 14:34 remaining, and he added another a couple minutes later to push the advantage to 59-43.

Akron’s advantage reached 20 points at 71-51 with 7:38 to go on a Camron Reece layup, and Ohio got no closer than 18 the rest of the game. Trimble’s final 3-pointer with 2:42 remaining gave the Zips an 85-58 advantage.

"We'd use so much energy sometimes and we'd have them with the shot clock down to six and eight seconds, and they'd make a play," Boals said. "The fight wasn't there that we needed to win on the road against the defending champions. I think that's the most disappointing thing."

Averaging a double-double on the season, Wilson was limited to nine points and four rebounds for the Bobcats, who were outrebounded 37-25. Akron had more turnovers 14-6.

Ohio shot a reasonable 41.9% from the field, 29.6% from long range and was 10 of 16 from the foul line, compared to 6 of 9 for Akron, but it was not nearly enough to match Akron’s hot shooting.

Reece had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Zips.

The Bobcats’ next scheduled game against Miami set for next Tuesday is postponed. With that, next up is Ball State on the road Jan. 2.