The upset seemed to be right at the fingertips of Miami University’s men’s basketball team. And then suddenly it wasn’t.

Visiting Akron overcame a nine-point deficit and extended the nation’s longest active winning streak to 15, fighting off the RedHawks in a 54-50 Mid-American Conference East Division victory at Millett Hall.

“We wanted to beat these guys real bad,” said MU center Drew McGhee, who had 10 points and six rebounds. “Knowing that they’re undefeated in the MAC and all this longest win streak in the country stuff, we wanted to end that for them. We had a great first half and just gave it away in the second.”

Allen Roberts tallied 11 points and Reggie Johnson added 10 for Miami, which committed 10 of its 18 turnovers and shot just 36.4 percent from the floor in the second half.

Demetrius Treadwell and Brian Walsh collected 13 points apiece for the Zips. The visitors improved to 19-4 overall and 10-0 in the MAC, while the RedHawks slipped to 8-14, 3-7.

“In the second half, I think more than anything, our turnovers just absolutely hurt us,” MU coach John Cooper said. “Too many empty possessions.

“I thought our effort was good enough. We were able to outrebound them, so that’s certainly an area we’ve improved in. We just didn’t make the plays we needed to make down the stretch.”

Miami’s 32-30 advantage on the boards — powered by point guard Quinten Rollins (seven), McGhee and Will Felder (five) — against one of the MAC’s biggest teams didn’t shock the RedHawks.

“We gave up some inches inside, but it’s really all about the work that you put in, the energy that you put in when you go about boxing out and stuff like that,” Felder said.

Akron took the lead for good (48-45) on Treadwell’s traditional three-point play with 2:15 remaining. MU racked up three turnovers during a 22-second stretch in the final minute.

Zips coach Keith Dambrot was relieved after watching the often-sluggish performance by his troops.

“The one thing I’ll say about our group is we don’t splinter, and we have good guts,” Dambrot said. “We’ve been in a lot of those games this year. We’ve been down most of the year, really, when you look at it in the league.

“We have to play better than that, but you’ve got to take your hat off to (Miami). It’s not like they’ve got chopped liver. That’s a good coach. That guy’s a confident guy who does a good job with his team. I wouldn’t sleep on them too much.”

Akron shot 39.6 percent from the field (56.5 percent in the second half), 50.0 percent from the charity stripe and 31.3 percent from 3-point range. The RedHawks shot 41.7 percent from the floor and 57.1 percent from the line while converting only 2 of 9 treys.