Oakland women's basketball tops University of Akron in Ryan Gensler's debut as Zips coach

University of Akron women's basketball players Reagan Bass and Morgan Haney left Rhodes Arena on Monday night optimistic and happy.

Sure, there was disappointment after Oakland defeated Akron 91-87 in double overtime in the season opener for both teams, but the Zips rallied from an 11-point deficit in the second half to make the Golden Bears sweat.

"Keep leading with love," first-year Akron coach Ryan Gensler said with a smile to Bass and Haney after they met with the media.

Bass and Haney giggled as they walked away, but they understood the message.

"We have a leadership group within our team and we are reading Abby Wambach's Wolfpack book and we talk about leadership, and specifically female leaders," Gensler said.

"We recognize that top-down leadership and dictatorship and just because it is this way doesn't work. You gotta lead with a humility, but also a humanity. We broke that down to bringing people along and being there for them and showing you care. ... We need to actually build those relationships because this is so new."

Speaking of new, Bass and Haney each had career-highs for points in a game.

Bass, a 6-foot-1 junior forward, compiled three-game highs with 33 points, 13 rebounds and 49 minutes and 20 seconds on the court.

"It was a testament to our grit today," Bass said. "I think we really pushed through some adversity and we really showed that we can play together and play as one. One of our focuses going in the game was Oakland is a great O boards [offensive rebounding] team, and we really made that an emphasis and we showed it today on the court."

Akron held an edge in rebounds (47-41) and assists (18-11), but Oakland shot better from the field (47 percent to 41 percent).

"We were able to move the ball very well up the court in transition," Bass said. "I was able to hit Mo with one of those up the court and she hit me right back. We shared the love tonight."

Bass, a graduate of Strongsville High School, was tabbed as a first-team All-Mid-American Conference preseason selection by the coaches in the league last week after being a first-team All-MAC honore last season.

Haney, a 5-8 senior guard, totaled 21 points, six rebounds and four assists in 38 minutes before fouling out in her first game with Akron.

"I got a lot of good looks from 3 today and that is a testament to how well we penetrated, passed and moved the ball," Haney said. "I was hoping a few more would fall. There were a lot of good looks and fortunately some of them went down. We stayed aggressive and kept pounding the ball down their throats the entire game. Unfortunately, we came up short, but I think there were a lot of really good highlights that came out of that game.

"... The grit part was huge. As we sat in the locker room after the game, we were really proud of how well fought today and competed. Losses suck at the end of the day, but like I said there were so many highlights and just how well we played together and how well we executed a lot of things. I am really excited moving forward. There are little things we can get better at each day. I think there is a lot of upside with this team."

Haney is a graduate transfer who previously played at Albany.

"Certainly, there is an intensity about how they play, but there is a calmness and a maturity for them that they did not get rattled," Gensler said of Bass and Haney. "They stayed the course of what we wanted to do. They made effort plays to put us in better positions."

Akron junior Alexus Mobley scored 10 points, sophomore Lanae Riley (Archbishop Hoban graduate) contributed eight points and eight rebounds and junior Kaia Woods had seven points and five assists.

Senior Linda van Schaik led Oakland with 21 points in 36 minutes.

"She is the straw that stirs the drink for them, and we knew that," Gensler said. "... They are always a very tough, gritty and physical team."

Oakland's other double-figure scorers were Markyia McCormick (15 points), Kianni Westbrook (13), Brooke Quarles-Daniels (12), Alexis Johnson (11) and Miriam Ibezim (10 points, 10 rebounds).

The score was tied 70-70 at the end of regulation and 77-77 after the first overtime. The Golden Bears closed the game on an 11-4 run.

"Obviously, very disappointing that we were not able to come out with the victory, but a lot of really good things came out of tonight," Gensler said. "I thought we responded really well from our first half where we struggled to get the ball into the paint. I reminded them what our strengths were and we responded very well.

" ... Ultimately, I was really proud of our responses, really proud of our togetherness and really proud of how hard we played."

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

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Oakland beats Akron in 2 overtimes in NCAA women's basketball opener