Tavari Johnson leads Akron past WMU with trips to Buffalo, OU up next

The University of Akron men’s basketball team is traveling to Buffalo, New York and Athens, Ohio, this week for challenging Mid-American Conference games.

Although the temperatures will be cold outside, Akron coach John Groce is confident his players will be hot with their shooting after a 104-89 win over Western Michigan on Jan. 17.

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Akron (14-4, 5-1) outscored Western Michigan 73-44 over the final 26 minutes of the game after trailing 45-31 with 6:13 remaining in the first half.

Senior Tavari Johnson scored 32 points — three off his career-high — on 12-of-21 shooting from the field, including 4 of 8 from beyond the 3-point arc, and made all four of his free throws. He also had eight assists in 36 minutes.

“It was a good shooting night for me,” Johnson said. “I was able to hit shots. It started off with the ball screens from [senior] Amani Lyles. He sets good screens and got me going, and after that it was going with those 3s that I hit in the first half.”

Akron senior Shammah Scott scored 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range, and had five assists in 25 minutes.

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Lyles totaled 14 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Senior Bowen Hardman made 4 of 6 from deep for 12 points.

Groce was happy with how his players “handled adversity,” which will likely pop up again Tuesday, Jan. 20, at Buffalo and Friday, Jan. 23, at Ohio.

“Their resiliency, I thought, was incredible,” Groce said. “You get down 14 [points]. We made some errors, but give Western some credit. They made some big-time shots, hard shots, and our guys never flinched. Just didn’t flinch. Kept coming, throwing haymakers back because I thought we took a real gut punch early. I thought everybody contributed that played.

“Obviously, we still have got [Chabi] Barre out [with a foot injury] and we have got Sharron Young out with a hand injury, so some other guys had to step up and fill those minutes.”

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Groce said Young and Barre’s…

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Publish date : 2026-01-19 10:55:00

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