Cheese, Jackson lead Akron's 72-49 rout of N. Illinois

Jan 15, 2021, 03:55 am

DEKALB, Ill. -- Tyler Cheese scored 23 points as Akron romped past Northern Illinois 72-49 on Tuesday night to remain undefeated in the Mid-American Conference.

Loren Cristian Jackson ad 17 points with eight assists for Akron (14-3, 4-0), which won its fifth consecutive game. Xeyrius Williams added 12 points and 13 rebounds, his sixth double-double this season.

Akron dominated the first half, shooting 53% from the floor (16-for-30) to build a 44-20 halftime lead. Both teams set season lows for scoring during the game. The Zips' 28 second-half points were the lowest of the season for the visitors, while the 20 points in the first half for the Huskies marked the fewest of the season for Northern Illinois.

Eugene German had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Huskies (9-8, 2-2). Tyler Cochran added 10 points and seven rebounds. Trendon Hankerson was held to two points on 1-for-4 shooting in 34 minutes.

Akron plays Toledo at home on Saturday. Northern Illinois takes on Bowling Green on the road on Saturday.

---

For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP-Top25

---

Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com