Jan. 17, 2000

Box Score

Wilmington, NC

Barron Thelmon’s offensive rebound and putback with 36.9 seconds left gave UNC Wilmington (8-7) a 54-52 lead and the Flames were unable to answer in the game’s final moments as they were handed a heartbreaking 54-52 loss at the Trask Coliseum in Wilmington, NC, tonight.

UIC (6-13), which led 26-21 at the halftime break, held 52-50 lead with 1:08 remaining in the game. UNCW’s Marcus Green knotted the game at 52-52 as he grabbed the offensive rebound and dunked the ball while also drawing the foul.

Following Green’s controversial miss at the free throw line, as it was questionable whether his charity shot hit the rim, Thelmon grabbed the rebound and laid it in for the game-winning basket.

With 10 seconds remaining, UIC had a chance to take the lead, but Jordan Kardos’ three-point shot from the left wing bounced out. After a missed free throw by Thelmon, who scored 10 of his 11 points in the second half, the Flames collected the rebound and hustled the ball up the court, but Theandre Kimbrough’s three-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer came up short.

“I thought our kids fought hard tonight and Jerry’s (Wainwright) kids fought just as hard and certainly deserved to win,” UIC Head Coach Jimmy Collins said. “It’s just too bad that the guys in the stripes had to be out there. We should’ve called our own fouls – it certainly would have been a cleaner game. We didn’t get a fair deal from the officiating tonight.”

UIC, which suffered its fourth-straight loss, held UNC Wilmington to just 25.8% shooting from the field in the first half while it hit 42.3% and enjoyed leads by as many as 10 points. The table turned on the Flames in the second half, however, as the Seahawks drained 50% of their field goals to UIC’s chilly 29%.

Kimbrough, who missed the Flames’ outing with Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Saturday for disciplinary reasons, returned to action tonight and paced the Flames with 15 points while he also collected a team-high eight rebounds.

UNCW guard Brett Blizzard led all scorers with 21 points while Thelmon finished the evening with 11.