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Men's Basketball's Second-Half Rally Fizzles Against Youngstown State, 68-60
Feb. 7, 2009
CHICAGO - The UIC men's basketball team rallied from 21 points down to eventually draw even with Youngstown State in the latter part of the second half, but the Flames were unable to get over the hump caused by the Penguins' scorching-hot three-point shooting in the opening stanza of a 68-60 loss at the UIC Pavilion on Saturday night. Josh Mayo scored a game-high 18 points for the Flames (10-13, 3-10 Horizon League), who fell for the fifth straight game. Robo Kreps scored 15 points, the fourth straight game he has had at least 15, while Tori Boyd added nine. Scott VanderMeer pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. It appeared Youngstown State (8-15, 5-8 Horizon League) could not miss in the first half. The Penguins shot 54.8 percent (17-for-31) from the field and hit 10 of their 13 three-point attempts during the period. UIC went up 18-17 on a pair of VanderMeer free throws at the 12:34 mark in the first when Youngstown State went on a barrage from downtown, hitting seven of eight three-point shots over a span of just under seven minutes during a 25-3 Penguin run. The Flames came out of the break on an 8-0 burst capped by back-to-back triples off of the fingertips of Mayo and Kreps to cut their 17-point halftime deficit down to nine. Youngstown State would nudge its lead back up to 12 when a Mayo layup started a run in which UIC outscored the Penguins 14-2 and tied the game with seven and a half left. But the hosts were unable to get the go-ahead bucket and instead went on an inopportune drought, missing four straight shots before Vytas Sulskis made a lay-in to put the Penguins up and seven straight until the Flames' next successful basket, a Kreps jumper with just under three remaining. By that point Youngstown State had taken an 11-point lead following Tom Parks' two consecutive three-pointers.
"I thought we fought hard to come back from a 21-point deficit to tie the score, but then we get right there and we throw the ball away and let them come down a hit a three," said UIC head coach Jimmy Collins. "It looked like target practice out there," said Collins. "You're not going to beat anybody when you just let them shoot." Junior point guard Spencer Stewart made his return after a six-game hiatus due to a foot injury, coming off the bench to play 17 minutes. The loss was the first defeat UIC suffered to Youngstown State at home, having gone 10-0 against the Penguins at the Pavilion prior to Saturday. UIC rounds out its three-game homestand on Tuesday, Feb. 10 against Detroit at the UIC Pavilion beginning at 7 p.m. |
