Nick Winbush scored a career high 16 points Wednesday night against the University of Akron, eclipsing his previous high of 11. However, Winbush's accomplishment is one of the only positives coming out of the night.

It was a dreadful night for Michael Bramos and the RedHawk offense as they produced only 44 points in a 53-44 loss to the Zips. Despite missing 34 of their 47 shots and allowing 19 turnovers, the RedHawks kept it close with strong defense for most of the game.

With five minutes left in the second half and the 'Hawks trailing by three, the Zips made a surge. Chris McKnight and Anthony (Humpty) Hitchens caught fire after an Akron timeout when they scored 18 points to the RedHawks' nine in a span of four minutes.

Hitchens torched the RedHawks from three making two in that span while McKnight had several dunks and layups. The 14 points scored by the RedHawks in the entire first half continued a trend of early incompetency.

For the last eight minutes to finish the half, the RedHawks only squeezed out two points.

"Akron brought great defensive pressure, and it caused us to hurry a little bit," senior Tim Pollitz said. "We didn't make adjustment to their defense to get better shots."

The loss is upsetting as the RedHawks remained second in the MAC only to the University at Buffalo before this game. It was Buffalo who had given the 'Hawks an opening to overtake them with a loss to Bowling Green State University. With the loss to Akron, the RedHawks lost out on the opportunity to surpass Buffalo and gave the streaking Kent State University Golden Flashes, who have won their last seven, a chance to overtake them.

None of this will matter unless the RedHawks figure out a way to solve their scoring woes.

"In the future we need to work on getting more guys involved in the offense," Pollitz said.

Fortunately, the RedHawks have an out-of-conference game against Evansville University, a Mountain Valley Conference team who is struggling as well with a 7-9 conference record.

The RedHawks continue their road trip knowing what they have to do.

"Turnovers and execution," freshman Julian Mavunga said. "We had 14 (points) at halftime and we just didn't play well offensively. As a team we need to do a better job of taking care of the ball and executing an offense. We played pretty well defensively and we just need to learn from this game and adjust to win our next."