Dec. 30, 2008
Box Score
CHICAGO- Senior guard Josh Mayo scored a game-high 18 points and senior center Scott VanderMeer fell one rebound shy of his sixth double-double of the season, but the UIC men's basketball team was upended by league rival Milwaukee, 71-66, at the UIC Pavilion on Tuesday night.
The Flames (8-4, 1-1 Horizon League) shot just 26.9 percent (7-for-26) from three-point range for the game, while the Panthers (7-5, 3-0 Horizon League) thrived from downtown by hitting 13 of their 32 attempts (40.6 percent) from beyond the arc.
Mayo led four Flames in double figures, with VanderMeer adding 16, Robo Kreps scoring 11 and Jeremy Buttell tallying 10. VanderMeer also had nine rebounds, while Buttell pulled down eight as UIC outrebounded the Panthers 38-33.
Avery Smith and reserve forward Jason Eayers each scored 15 to lead Milwaukee. The 6-foot-7, 310-pound Eayers hit five of Milwaukee's 13 three-pointers.
The Flames led for most of the first half, going up by as many as eight. But the Panthers ended the period on a 13-4 run, capped by Smith's three-pointer at the buzzer, to take a one-point lead into the break.
It was a close battle for most of the second half, but Milwaukee turned a two-point lead with just under six minutes remaining into a nine-point advantage at the 4:21 mark thanks to a Tony Meier three and back-to-back layups by Smith.
UIC would not lay down, cutting the deficit down to one on a quick 8-0 spurt that was finished by Mayo's deep three.
Tone Boyle made two free throws on the other end to extend the Panther lead back to three, but Mayo missed a game-tying trey on the opposite side, and after Ricky Franklin's miss from the charity stripe, another contest-knotting downtown try by Mayo with 46 seconds left fell short.
Tuesday's game was just the second time this season that UIC allowed an opponent to score 70-plus points.
Despite a 36-16 points-in-the-paint advantage led by VanderMeer, UIC was only able to get to the line five times while Milwaukee made 12 of 13 free throw attempts.
The Flames return to the Pavilion this Saturday, Jan. 3 against Green Bay. Tip is set for 7 p.m.
