March 4, 2000

Box Score

Chicago, Ill. - The seventh-seeded UIC men's basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the 2000 Nokia MCC Men's Basketball Tournament Saturday night at the UIC Pavilion, upsetting No. 2 seed Cleveland State, 70-54.

The Flames (11-19) have now won five straight games at the Pavilion and have notched 10 of their 11 total wins at home.

"We are confident at home," Flames' guard Theandre Kimbrough said after the game. "We have to take it one game at a time now and try and go out and take care of business tomorrow."

Theandre Kimbrough led five UIC players in double figures with 14 points. Jordan Kardos scored 13, Joe Scott and Maurice Brown each added a dozen while Jonathan Scneiderman chipped in 11.

Brown tabbed his seventh double-double of the season as he also led the Flames with 11 boards.

James Madison paced Cleveland State(16-14) with 16 points.

After falling behind 12-4 early in the first half, UIC went on a 22-6 run over the next 11 minutes to take an eight-point advantage, 26-18. Six different Flames contibuted to the rally that ended with UIC taking a 28-21 lead into intermission.

"We started off very nervous," Head Coach Jimmy Collins said following the win. "Jonathan (Schneiderman) and Jordan (Kardos) came in and settled us down. We began to run our offense and we didn't turn the ball over. We ended up getting some fast breaks and the rest is history."

Cleveland State would pull to within two (37-35) with 13:04 left, but once again the Flames surged ahead as they went on a 17-4 spurt to take a 54-39 lead they would never relinquish.

UIC will meet the winner of #6 Wright State and #3 Detroit tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. in the MCC tournament semifinals.