In a thrilling game on Hoop Pink night, UIC survived a late Detroit Mercy rally and upset the Titans, 63-62 at UIC Pavilion Thursday evening.  Terri Bender made two free throws with three seconds left, and UIC (5-21, 2-13 HL) defended two final efforts by Detroit Mercy (14-11, 10-4 HL) to secure the win in front of the second largest home crowd of the season.

The Flames trailed by 10 points at the end of the first quarter, but controlled the game for the middle two quarters and the first part of the fourth.  Kiki Bynes scored 11 of her career high-tying 18 points in the second period as UIC erased the Detroit Mercy lead.  Bynes made all three of her 3-point attempts, but a Rebecca Reynolds triple with time winding down put the visitors ahead by two at halftime.

UIC switched gears and pounded the ball inside deliberately and repeatedly in the third quarter.  Tyra Carlsten-Handberg scored 10 points in the quarter, mostly after establishing herself in the post.  Fellow forward Teodora Zagorac also had a layup as part of an 11-1 run that gave the Flames a 47-40 lead with under three minutes to go.

The Flames extended their lead to as many as 11 points in the early stages of the fourth quarter.  Detroit Mercy slowly but surely came back, doing most of their damage during a 17-5 run from the free throw line.  The Titans were 10-for-14 at the stripe in the final quarter, as UIC had five players foul out by game's end.  Rebecca Reynolds split a pair with 33 seconds remaining to pull Detroit Mercy within one.  Following a UIC timeout, Nicole Urbanick stole the inbounds pass and coasted to the hoop for an easy layup, putting the Titans ahead for the first time since the middle of the third quarter.

Trailing by one point, the Flames had the ball with 21 seconds left.  They started their offense early, which turned out to be the right call as they missed three shots from within four feet, but got the rebound each time.  Bender corralled the final rebound, her game high 11^th, and was fouled immediately to set up the dramatic final sequence.  After she made both free throws, Detroit Mercy called timeout and advanced the ball.  They were able to get off two shots from close range, but both clanged off the iron and the Flames, clad in pink uniforms to support breast cancer awareness, celebrated their fourth home win of the season.

In addition to Bynes and Carlsten-Handberg, Taylor Toney (10 points) scored in double figures for the team high 14^th time this season.  Rosanna Reynolds was the game's high scorer at 22 and Brianne Cohen added 17, but no other Titan scored more than eight.  The Titans had been making over eight three pointers per game, but had a conference-play low four on 4-for-16 shooting, a full 10 points below their season clip of 35%.

UIC will return to the UIC Pavilion court one final time in 2017 Saturday afternoon.  Oakland will be the opponent for the home finale, scheduled to tip at 3:00 pm after a pregame ceremony to honor the UIC seniors.