HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. -- UIC will play the second contest of a three-game road trip, and the second Horizon League tilt of the season, when it visits BB&T Arena to tussle with the Northern Kentucky Norse on Saturday, Dec. 30 at 6 p.m. CT.

Saturday's game, which is being broadcast on CW Cincinnati, will also be carried in the Chicagoland area on NBC Sports Chicago. To find the channel on your cable provider, please click here. The game will also be streamed on ESPN3, but subject to local blackouts in Cincinnati and Chicago.

Both the Flames (5-9, 0-1 HL) and Norse (8-5, 1-0 HL) began their conference slates on Thursday night. UIC outshot Wright State, 43 percent to 32 percent, but the Flames turned the ball over 20 times and surrendered 15 offensive rebounds to the Raiders to help the latter escape with a 65-61 victory. Marcus Ottey, who scored a game-high 16 points, gave UIC a one-point lead with 2:24 remaining, but Wright State made 9-of-10 free-throw attempts over the final 2:10 to get past the Flames.

Northern Kentucky hosted the newest member of the League, IUPUI, on Thursday. Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year Drew McDonald amassed 27 points and 10 rebounds to help the Norse cruise to a 77-59 victory. McDonald is averaging a team-best 16.9 points and 7.8 rebounds for NKU this season. As a team, the Norse is the only team in the Horizon League to rank in the top two in both scoring (81.1 ppg) and scoring defense (65.2 ppg).

DIXSON DIGS TOWARD 1,000

• Sophomore Dikembe Dixson needs five points to reach 1,000 in his UIC career.
• He is in position to become the 22^nd player in program history, and the 19^th in the Division I era, to reach the milestone.
• The Matewan, W. Va., native is averaging 18.4 points per game in 54 career games at UIC.
• The last player to join the 1,000-point club was Marc Brown on March 6, 2015. He finished with 1,022 career points.
• UIC's all-time scoring leader is Cedrick Banks who scored 2,097 points from 2001-05.

BETTER ON THE BOARDS

• UIC was outrebounded in six of its first seven games before recently reversing the trend.
• After being outgained on the glass by an average of 2.8 rebounds per game over the first seven, the Flames' average rebounding margin for the last seven contests is +8.3.
• UIC now ranks second in the Horizon League with 39.0 rebounds per game. The Flames own the top margin in the League at +2.8.
• The Flames set a program record with 1,426 rebounds last season, ranking 18^th in the NCAA with 39.61 rebounds per game.

ON THE DEFENSIVE

• UIC leads the Horizon League in field-goal percentage defense with the opposition shooting 40.5 percent against the Flames this season.
• Wright State entered Thursday's game shooting 43.3 percent on the season, but the Flames held the Raiders to a mark of 32.8 percent in the Horizon League opener.
• In the last seven games, since Dec. 6 against Wisconsin-Parkside, opponents are shooting 35.2 percent from the floor.

FLAMES PICKED THIRD IN PRESEASON POLL

• UIC was selected third in the Horizon League preseason poll as voted by the conference's coaches, media and sports information directors.
• The Flames finished sixth in 2016-17 with seven wins in Horizon League play and advanced to the semifinals of the #HLMBB Tournament.
• Oakland, the conference's defending regular season champion, was picked to repeat.

For more notes, statistics and information about Saturday's game, please click the UIC Game Notes PDF linked in the blue box above.