Dec. 23, 2001

Box Score

Akron, Ohio - It was obvious that the University of Illinois at Chicago women's basketball team was missing a certain something in their 69-53 loss at the hands of Bradley on Thursday night.

That certain something was junior point guard Consuela Hall. Hall missed that contest with an injury that she suffered the previous game against IUPU-Fort Wayne.

Hall made her return on Sunday afternoon and scored nine of her season-high 11 points in the second half to push UIC to the 60-50 victory over the Akron Zips at the JAR Arena.

"She's our point guard so she's our leader, having her on the floor makes everybody else more comfortable and it makes me feel comfortable," UIC head coach Tim Eatman said. "She does things that doesn't show up in the box scores, but she does the things that we need her to do."

With the victory UIC improves to 8-3 overall, while Akron drops to 1-9 for the season. The Flames are off to their best start since the 1979-80 campaign when they opened the season with a record of 12-3.

Junior guard LeKesha Williams scored a game-high 15 points for the Flames, while senior forward Stesha Rhodes chipped in 12 points.

The win, however, was not an easy one for the Flames.

After UIC had opened a 26-16 lead in the first half, the Zips mounted a 16-2 run led by eight points from Lindsay Hemmelgarn (14 points) to take a 32-28 lead at the intermission.

UIC and Akron traded baskets in the second half, before the Flames' took the lead for good with 13:31 left in the contest as Hall drained her second three-pointer of the night.

Eatman noticed the difference between his squad from the first and second half.

"They're capable of making plays, but I think that once we understood that we had to work together, I thought we had better success," Eatman said.

UIC also did a stalwart job on defense as the Flames held Akron to 18 points in the second half and an overall shooting performance of 31 percent. They also held the Zips' leading scorer Dominique Harris to without a point for the day.

The Flames will be back in action on Friday, December 28th as they will host Holy Cross at the UIC Pavilion at 7:00 PM.