Nov. 15, 2000
Box Score
Chicago, Ill - Behind 11 second-half points from freshman Aaron Carr, the UIC men's basketball team overcame a three-point halftime deficit to down MAFC-KE Budapest Hungary 71-58 Wednesday night at the UIC Pavilion in their final exhibition tune-up. UIC opens the 2000-01 regular season on Saturday afternoon at Saint Louis at 1:10 p.m.
"It's an exhibition game," stated head coach Jimmy Collins. "We are going to do some experimenting to see who is going to answer the bell. Aaron Carr stepped up and did a tremendous job. He really got the team going in the second half."
The Flames opened the contest strong versus the Hungarians, taking an early 10-point advantage, 22-12. MAFC-KE closed out the stanza just as strong, though, ending the half on a 9-1 run to take a 31-29 lead into intermission with a three-pointer by Gergely Kangyal, who led the team with 16 points and eight assists, at the horn.
They would expand that lead to eight points, 41-33, four minutes into the second half, but UIC took control from there, outscoring the Hungarians 14-5 over the next five minutes to regain the lead for good, 47-46. Carr scored six points during the run to key the Flames' comeback.
"They would have beat us if we didn't make any adjustments at halftime," commented Collins. "Once we made those adjustments we were better off."
Carr finished the night with a team-high 15 points while sophomore Maurice Brown chipped in 10 points and six rebounds.
After opening the season at Saint Louis on Saturday, the Flames return home on Tuesday, November 21, as they open their home slate versus Texas-San Antonio at 7:00 p.m.
