Dec. 23, 2008
Box Score
TOLEDO, Ohio- Defense did the trick for the UIC men's basketball team on Tuesday night, as the Flames built a double-digit first-half lead and turned away a furious second-half Rocket rally by causing long Toledo droughts in a 66-56 road win inside Savage Arena.
Junior guard Spencer Stewart scored a game-high 15 points, aided by three first-half three-pointers, for the Flames (8-3), who never trailed to win for the seventh time in eight games.
Senior center Scott VanderMeer posted his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds while blocking three shots, giving him sole possession of the Horizon League's career blocks records with 227 swatted shots in under three seasons in a UIC uniform.
Forwards Jeremy Buttell and Tori Boyd just missed double-doubles of their own. Buttell had eight points and nine rebounds, while Boyd scored 11 points while pulling down eight boards off the bench.
With senior guard Josh Mayo getting plenty of attention from Toledo (2-9), who had multiple defenders hovering UIC's star sharpshooter to hold him to a season-low six points and 2-for-11 shooting from the floor, the Flames relied on its frontline and stout defense to turn a close contest into a double-digit game in their favor.
The Flames outscored the Rockets in the paint 34-24, getting 17 second-chance points thanks mainly to 19 offensive rebounds that allowed UIC to own a 47-29 advantage on the glass.
UIC's big men dictated the interior play, allowing Stewart and others to get open looks from the outside. The junior point guard made good on his clean views from behind the arc, draining all three of his attempts from downtown in the first half to score 11 in the period.
The Rockets would pull within three on Tyrone Kent's jumper with just over nine minutes left in the first half, but that would prove to be Toledo's last field goal until the 1:09 mark. UIC's "D" stiffened to force Toledo to go 0-for-9 from the field in a span of almost eight minutes, helping the Flames close the period on an 18-6 run that was built off an 11-0 spurt.
The Flames maintained their double-figure lead for the first 10-plus minutes of the second period until the Rockets made their run. Toledo outscored UIC 12-2 in a span of eight minutes, capped by Clayton Sterling's three-pointer with six minutes left in regulation, to pull within two.
As was the case in the first half, the UIC defense tightened when the game did the same. The Flames held Toledo scoreless for the next 3:40, forcing the Rockets into 0-for-3 shooting and two costly turnovers, and went on an 8-0 run that made a one-possession game into a 10-point lead for the visitors.
UIC would go up by as many as 12 in the late stages after a Robo Kreps steal and subsequent layup, putting the game out of reach.
The Flames get seven days off until delving back into Horizon League play on Dec. 30 in a home game against Milwaukee at the UIC Pavilion at 7 p.m.
