The Mid-American Conference (MAC) women’s basketball season continued Saturday as Miami University (14-9, 6-4) and the University of Akron (16-7, 7-3) met for the first time this season with first place in the MAC East Division on the line.

The Zips outlasted the RedHawks and won the game 84-77.

“This is a disappointing loss,” Head Coach Maria Fantanarosa said. “I feel better about how we responded after the Toledo loss.”

The ’Hawks fell to the University of Toledo (21-2, 9-1) 80-49 last Wednesday at home.

The RedHawks wore pink uniforms on Saturday that will be auctioned off at a later date with all proceeds going to breast cancer awareness.

The ’Hawks led the game early by going on a 6-0 run and forced the Zips to take a timeout.

The Red and White led the Zips for much of the first half until the four-minute mark when the Zips gained momentum and went into the half with a 37-32 lead. The Zips closed the first half on a 16-3 run.

“We gave up a lot of easy points,” Fantanarosa said. “Lay ups, transitions and turnover points killed us.”

The Zips had 22 points off of Miami’s 20 turnovers.

Akron was led by redshirt junior forward Rachel Tecca who finished with a double-double. She had 29 points and 11 rebounds.

The starting point guard for the Zips, junior Kacie Cassell, finished with 10 assists.

Akron shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and 46.7 percent for the game.

Junior guard Haley Robertson led the RedHawks with 9 first-half points. She finished with 13 points. Junior forward Erica Almady had 8 first-half points and finished with a career-high 20 points.

“The guards were getting the ball to me and my confidence was there,” Almady said. “Coach has been trying to get me to score.”

Almady shot 7-11 from the field.

The Zips began the second half with the lead and scored many points on transition and fast break situations.

After Miami outrebounded the Zips 21-9 in the first half the Zips took charge and outrebounded the ’Hawks 22-14 in the second half.

Despite the loss, the RedHawks shot 50 percent from the field Saturday.

“The offense took steps forward, I am upset that the defense didn’t,” Fantanarosa said.

Fantanarosa said that the ’Hawks starters were tired at the end of the game, which allowed the Zips to pull away late.

“Our starters played a lot of minutes, they have to fight through it,” Fantanarosa said. “We need to challenge our bench to contribute.”

The ’Hawks bench accounted for four of the 77 points scored on Saturday.

The ’Hawks will now enter a bye week, and Fantanarosa believes it is needed.

“We are tired and ready for the bye week,” Fantanarosa said.

Fantanarosa said that the whole team is not happy where they are this point and they are determined to define who they are as a team.

“We are ready to get back to practice and define our experience,” Fantanarosa said.