Feb. 22, 2006

Final Stats

Cleveland, Ohio - The UIC men's basketball team rallied back from a 14-point deficit in the second half at Cleveland State on Wednesday night to earn a 72-67 overtime victory over the Vikings at the Wolstein Center.

With the win, the Flames leveled their record at 14-14 on the year and sit at 7-8 in Horizon League play after notching their fourth straight league road victory. Cleveland State slipped to 10-16 overall and 5-10 in the league with the loss.

Junior Danijel Zoric had a strong night in the post for UIC, finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals.

Sophomore Othyus Jeffers was also in double figures with 14 while freshman Josh Mayo chipped in with 13 and junior Jovan Stefanov added 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Flames.

Freshman J'Nathan Bullock paced Cleveland State with 25 points and eight rebounds.

UIC trailed by 12 at halftime and found itself down 36-22 just moments into the second stanza.

The Flames would not throw in the towel, though, as back-to-back three-pointers from freshman Josh Mayo (13 points) sparked an 18-4 run over the next seven minutes with UIC tying the game at 40-40 on a triple by senior Justin Bowen.

The two teams traded the lead five times over the final 12 minutes. The Flames were down 57-53 with under two minutes left, but junior Jovan Stefanov was fouled on back-to-back possessions and converted all four free throws to send the game into overtime.

In the extra session UIC never trailed after an early lay-in by Stefanov. The Flames went 9-of-12 from the charity stripe in overtime to hold off any Cleveland State comeback hopes.

UIC will look to finish off the 2005-06 regular-season with a victory on Saturday when the Flames welcome Wright State to the UIC Pavilion at 3:00 p.m. for `Senior Day'.