For the Akron Zips, it was an upset victory. For the Mississippi State Bulldogs, it was yet another disappointing early-season loss.
MSU fell to Akron 68-58 Wednesday night in the Bulldogs’ opening game of the 2011 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer in front of  a crowd of 4,904.
In what seems to have become a disturbing trend for MSU, the Bulldogs once again suffered a tough loss on their home court to a non-conference team they were expected to beat. This was predicted to be a tough test for MSU as Akron is a quality squad that won the MAC conference tournament title last year and made the NCAA Tournament, but it was a game MSU was expected to win.
Facing an Akron team  anchored by talented 7’0 junior center Zeke Marshall, a player CBSSports basketball insider Jeff Goodman tabbed as one of his breakout players this year, MSU  struggled all game to score and never seemed to be playing with the emotion needed to beat a tough Akron squad.
MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said something just seemed a little bit off for the Bulldogs throughout the whole game.
“I never felt from the get go tonight that we were ever in control of the game,” he said. “I thought we were a step slow. I thought they were quicker to every loose ball; every 50-50 ball, if you guys have that stat, they got them, and we just couldn’t finish easy shots.”
MSU shot 34.3 percent from the field on the night and only 15.4 percent from behind the arc, and the Bulldogs never seemed able to get anything going offensively.
After leading 21-19 at one point in the first half, MSU went cold during the latter part of the half and went into halftime trailing Akron 29-37. It was a lead the Zips would never relinquish. Led by the strong play of junior forward Quincy Diggs, who killed the Bulldogs driving to the basket and finished with a game-high 19 points, and Marshall, who finished with 10 points, six rebounds and a game-high five blocks, Akron seemed to have an answer for everything MSU threw at it.
Diggs said Akron expected a tough game and never panicked when MSU made several runs in the second half.
“Coach told us before the game that we were going to take some punches, and we just have to counter back. We did a good job of that,” Diggs said. “It always feels good to beat a high-major team like this when you are a mid-major.”
MSU senior point guard Dee Bost once again led the team in scoring with 13 points, but Bost was 2-9 from the field and finished with only two assists.
“We never got it going, really, and we couldn’t get in sync,” Bost said. “They pushed us out of our offense, and they were a great defensive team. We just could not get it going.”
Bost was joined in double figures by junior center Renardo Sidney, who finished with 12 points, and freshman guard/forward Rodney Hood who had his second solid game in as many starts and finished with 10 points. Sidney said Marshall’s shot-blocking ability made it difficult for he and Moultrie to score in the paint.
“He is another Jarvis Varnado; long, athletic, can block everything,” Sidney said. “We just did not come out and fight hard enough.”
Akron out-scored MSU in the paint 44-28, scored more points off turnovers, 26-11, scored more fast break points, 16-4, and Akron’s bench out-scored the MSU bench 21-3. Statistically speaking, it was a dominating victory, and the Bulldogs cannot allow teams to dominate them on the stat sheet if they are going to be successful during the brutal upcoming slate of games on their schedule.
MSU will host South Alabama at 1 p.m. on Saturday before heading to New York to play Texas A&M and St. John’s in nationally-televised games that are part of the 2K Sports Classic.
The loss to Akron has made the two games in New York even more meaningful than they already were.