Enrique Freeman powers University of Akron Zips to men's basketball win over Bradley

Senior Enrique Freeman continues to do a little bit of everything very well for the University of Akron men's basketball team.

Freeman displayed his "motor" Tuesday night when he powered Akron to a 67-52 win over Bradley at Rhodes Arena. He led all players in points (21), rebounds (18), blocked shots (four) and steals (four) and added two assists.

Freeman, who is 6-foot-8, gave Bradley (6-3) fits in just over 33 minutes on the court with his dunks, layups, hook shots, length and athleticism.

"He just plays so hard," Akron coach John Groce said of Freeman. "He's relentless. We had good officials on the game tonight, but I thought the way they played, they were super physical. Quite honestly, I thought he was getting beat up before he ever caught the ball on multiple occasions. He just plays through it. I think what's most amazing on the stat sheet is the four blocks and four steals. That's from a guy who plays [power forward and center]. That's really unique, and you get 18 rebounds.

"He gets it near the basket, he's very efficient as he was tonight, 9 for 13 [from the field], but we gotta clean up some of the [eight] turnovers. Thought he let the guy take his ball. The thing about him is he'll be as disappointed or more so than I will. He doesn't like that. He wants to get better and wants to feel like he's contributing in that area that we've been trying to attack in terms of taking care of the ball.

"In his defense, he is the only guy that's regularly doubled and sometimes tripled. So when that happens, you might turn it over a couple times. If you were getting doubled all night in 30 some minutes, then you might throw it away a time or two."

Bradley coach Brian Wardle threw 7-1 Ahmet Jonovic, 6-9 Malevy Leons, 6-9 Darius Hannah, 6-8 Almar Atlason, 6-7 Christian Davis and 6-5 Emarion Ellis at Freeman, and the Akron standout delivered.

"I'm just trying to be the best player I can be for the team," said Freeman, who grabbed seven offensive rebounds.

Freeman helped spearhead an 11-0 run that gave the Zips a 52-44 lead with 8:41 to go in the second half. He started the surge by tapping a loose ball to 6-0 senior Kaleb Thornton, who made a 3-pointer.

Freeman followed with a layup and a hook shot, and 6-3 senior Greg Tribble and 6-2 junior Shammah Scott each dropped in a layup to cap the run.

"I'm known for my motor," Freeman said. "These guys are all counting on me to play with a high motor."

Tribble added with a smile: "He doesn't know no other way, but play hard. I be trying to tell him, 'Rique, you gotta chill sometimes, bro. You just play hard.'"

Freeman and Tribble helped Akron (5-3) outscore Bradley 39-23 in the second half.

"He is an offensive rebound monster and a defensive rebound monster," Akron 6-3 sophomore Nate Johnson said of Freeman. "Once he gets it close to that basket, I mean, it is two points. It's going in. He just has got a motor that he just doesn't stop."

Akron 6-9 senior Sammy Hunter described Freeman as "more than a challenge" to play against in practice.

"He's tremendous, man," Hunter said of Freeman. "It is not just the basketball, though. To be that good at basketball and then be such a family-oriented person and be such a humble dude, it's not just basketball. He's more than a basketball player. He's a good person and a good friend. So, I value him as that, more than a basketball player."

Hunter finished with 12 points and Johnson had 10 points and seven rebounds.

"We were back and forth, back and forth," Hunter said. "[Bradley's] Duke Deen hits a bank shot [from near midcourt] to put us down by one going into half. We just keep responding and responding, and that's what we do. We are Zips."

Zips 6-5 senior Mikal Dawson scored seven points. Tribble and Thornton both had six points and three assists and Scott added five points.

"We made very big plays on the defensive end and the offensive end to get us the lead late in the game," Freeman said. "... I had a lot of things that didn't go my way in this game — my free throws and the turnovers — but we were able to be resilient, keep fighting, and that's what got us the win ultimately."

The victory snapped Akron's three-game losing streak and gave Groce a 39-1 record at home against nonconference opponents.

"It's a great feeling," Freeman said. "I think we came out of those losses hungry and we came out with a learning mentality. We had to look at ourselves and fix a lot of things. ... Everybody did something to impact the game."

Tribble said the Zips "got back to the drawing table."

"Everybody locked in on what they had to do to get better for us to win," Tribble said.

Deen paced Bradley with 14 points. Hannah and Atlason both scored 11 points and Leons had eight points.

"We knew they got the best of us last time [74-55 on Dec. 22, 2022 in Peoria, Illinois], so we knew we had to come in here and give them our best shot," Tribble said.

Groce lauded his players for being "quality people."

"There's a bunch of dudes in there [in the locker room] that care about two things — they care about each other and they care about winning," Groce said. "They have personal agendas. We all do, right? I do, you do. But they put that secondary to those things, and that's what's unique about those guys."

Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Enrique Freeman leads Akron Zips to men's basketball win over Bradley