Tavari Johnson, Amani Lyles lead Akron to basketball win in MAC opener

The University of Akron men's basketball team hosts Eastern Michigan in its Mid-American Conference opener Friday, Dec. 19.

Akron is the reigning MAC regular season and MAC Tournament champion , and was an NCAA Tournament participate last season .

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Check back for live updates from Rhodes Arena .

Here is how the game unfolded with our updates from Friday night :

Akron tops Eastern Michigan 93-72 in NCAA men's basketball game

Akron tops Eastern Michigan 93-72 in the MAC opener for both teams.

Tavari Johnson finishes with 25 points, five assists and four steals for Akron (9-3, 1-0). Amani Lyles totals 16 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Evan Mahaffey contributes 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Carlos Hart totals 32 points, seven rebounds, two assist and two steals for EMU (6-6, 0-1). Mo Habhab finishes with 12 points, five rebounds, one assist and one block.

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 87-58 in second half of NCAA men's basketball game

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 87-58 with 4:18 to go in the second half. Evan Mahaffey with a couple of two-hand slam dunks and EMU coach Stan Heath calls a timeout.

Akron's Tavari Johnson is at 25 points.

EMU's Carlos Hart is at 29 points.

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 72-50 in second half of NCAA men's basketball game

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 72-50 with 7:55 to go in the second half. The Zips are maintaing their lead. The Mahaffey brothers, Evan and Eric, with slam dunks on Akron's 6-2 run to extend the lead to 22 points.

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 64-44 in second half of NCAA men's basketball game

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 64-44 with 11:19 to go in the second half.

Eric Mahaffey threw down a two-hand slam dunk, Tavari Johnson made a layup and Shammah Scott added a jumper on a 6-0 run for Akron to make it 64-40.

EMU's Mo Habhab and Carlos Hart each made two free throws to make it 64-44.

Akron extends lead over Eastern Michigan to 56-36 in second half of NCAA men's basketball game

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 56-36 with 17:22 to go in the second half. EMU coach Stan Heath calls a timeout after Akron's Zach Halligan makes a layup.

Akron off to a fast start in the opening minutes of the second half. Tavari Johnson has four points and Amani Lyles and Halligan each have two points as the Zips are on an 8-2 run.

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 48-34 at halftime of a NCAA men's basketball game

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 48-34 at halftime. Tavari Johnson made a layup and a two-hand skam dunk in the closing moments of the first half.

Johnson has 13 points for Akron and Amani Lyles has 12 points.

EMU's Carlos Hart leads all scorers with 14 points.

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 40-29 in first half of NCAA men's basketball game

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 40-29 with less than four minutes to go in the first half. Bowen Hardman has made a couple of 3-pointers to help Akron extend its lead.

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 28-22 in first half of NCAA men's basketball game

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 28-22 with 7:57 to go in the first half. EMU's Carlos Hart leads all scorers with 11 points. Amani Lyles has scored the past six points for Akron and has eight points in the first half. He made two free throws coming out of the under-8 minutes media timeout.

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 22-16 in first half of NCAA men's basketball game

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 22-16 with 10:57 to go in the first half. EMU's Carlos Hart cuts into Akron's lead with seven points in a 7-0 run. He made three layups and a free throw during the spurt.

Marvin Musiime-Kamali and Eric Mahaffey enter as reserves and both made a layup for Akron.

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 16-7 in first half of NCAA men's basketball game

Akron leads Eastern Michigan 16-7 with 14:28 to go in the first half. EMU coach Stan Heath calls a timeout as the Zips are on a 6-0 run with layups by Evan Mahaffey, Tavari Johnson and Amani Lyles.

The Zips are playing well. Sharron Young opened the game's scoring with a layup. Evan Mahaffey had two layups and a free throw in the opening moments. Zach Halligan also added a three-point play with a layup and a free throw to give Akron a 10-5 lead with 17:38 to go in the first half.

Here are some pregame notes:

What are Akron and Eastern Michigan's records in men's basketball this season?

Akron enters Friday with an 8-3 record and Eastern Michigan is 6-5.

Akron men's basketball starters vs. Eastern Michigan

• 0 Amani Lyles

• 3 Sharron Young

• 5 Tavari Johnson

• 12 Evan Mahaffey

• 21 Zach Halligan

Eastern Michigan men's basketball starters vs. Akron

• 2 Carlos Hart

• 4 Mo Habhab

• 9 Addison Patterson

• 10 Jon Sanders II

• 13 Godslove Nwabude

Akron Zips tune up for MAC play with lots of travel

Akron  comes into its MAC opener after losing 115-100 to Murray State in the Jack Jones Classic in Henderson, Nevada on Dec. 13. That followed an 88-71 win at Tulane on Dec. 6.

Those results came after  the Zips played in the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands four weeks ago . They defeated Iona and Evansville before a loss to Yale in the championship game. They scored at least 94 points in all three games, part of a streak of five straight games of 90-plus points before scoring 88 in the win at Tulane.

"I like our guys and I think offensively, we have been elite," Akron coach John Groce said . "We need to continue to build on that, but defensively we just haven't been good enough. We have got to be way better on that end of the floor. The guys know it. Everybody knows it in our program. We gotta get it to where we are more impactful on that end.

"Offensively, we have been really good. We have gotta get our defense better."

Akron men's basketball record in MAC openers

Akron enters Friday with a 24-9 record in MAC openers since joining the conference ahead of the 1992-1993 season.

Groce is 7-1 in MAC openers as Akron's coach with wins in each of the past seven seasons.

Former Akron coaches Coleman Crawford (2-1), Dan Hipsher (5-4) and Keith Dambrot (10-3) also compiled winning records in MAC openers.

Tavari Johnson leads Akron into men's basketball game against EMU

Tavari Johnson  scored 28 points and  Sharron Young  contributed 20 points in Akron's loss to Murray State.

Akron's Amani Lyles totaled 16 points, five rebounds and five assists. Halil "Chabi" Barre contributed 10 points, three rebounds and two blocks.

Murray State separated from Akron with its 3-point shooting. The Racers made 18 of 32 shots from beyond the arc and the Zips made 7 of 18. Layne Taylor made 6 of 9 3s for Murray State in scoring 23 points, one of seven Racers scoring double-figures.

"There are obviously some things we are working on," Groce said of defending 3-point shooters. "A lot of it starts, honestly, with multiple efforts on that end of the floor. I think our guys obviously are very confident in what we bring to the table offensively, but you can't rely on that just to outscore people. We have got to be more impactful on that end of the floor, whether its 3s or other areas that we have got to be better at defensively."

Mohammad Habhab leads the Eastern Michigan Eagles men's basketball team

EMU features coach Stan Heath and 6-foot-9 redshirt freshman forward Mohammad Habhab.

"Anytime you are going to play Stan's teams, you gotta be ready to go offensively because they are gritty defensively," Groce said. "He has been be able to have some success here early with some big wins, including one at Cincinnati. They have played both zone and man [defensively] and been successful during stretches with both.

"I think they have got great depth. More depth probably than they have had previously [in recent seasons]. They are really good rebounding the ball. Habhab is maybe as big a surpise as anyone in our league to this point. He leads the league in double-doubles [with five]. He averages [14.9] points and gets [8.1] rebounds a night, and is a plus passer [with 3.2 assists per game]. ... He is a load down there [in the paint]."

Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com .

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Eastern Michigan vs Akron Zips men's basketball score live updates