Jan. 28, 2010

Box Score

DAYTON, Ohio- Robo Kreps scored a game-high 16 points, but the worst shooting night in school history was among the many things that hampered the UIC men's basketball team during a 73-49 loss at Wright State inside the Nutter Center on Thursday night.

Kreps hit 10 of his 13 free throws, Chris Buchanan scored 11 points off the bench and Jeremy Buttell added nine points and seven rebounds for the Flames (5-15, 1-9 Horizon League), who fell for the seventh straight game.

Vaughn Duggins and Troy Tabler led a quintet of players in double figures for the Raiders (13-8, 6-4 Horizon League) with 14 points apiece.

The Flames made just 10 of their 50 attempts from the field to finish with a clip of 20 percent, breaking the previous school record-low of 21.1 percent field goal shooting during the 1998-99 season. UIC's 10 made field goals were also the second-lowest amount made all-time in program history.

Only four of UIC's 27 second-half shots (14.8 percent) traveled through the cylinder, cutting off any chance the Flames had at erasing their 10-point halftime deficit.

"When you shoot 10-for-50 against a team like [Wright State head coach] Brad [Brownell] has out there, it's going to be very tough to win," said UIC head coach Jimmy Collins. "When you shoot 10-for-50 against anybody, it's going to be tough to win."

Wright State's shooting night finished on the opposite end of the spectrum, as the Raiders hit 51 percent (26-for-51) of their shots from the floor.

Long offensive droughts also hindered UIC throughout the contest.

The Flames rallied from an early 10-point deficit by outscoring the Raiders 18-10 to tie the game at 23-23 with 6:24 left in the first half. From there the Flames went without a point for the next 5:22, a span in which Wright State went on an 11-0 run, until Kreps sank a free throw with just over a minute left until intermission.

After halftime UIC came within seven when Buttell nailed a three with 16:41 on the clock, but UIC went nearly four minutes without scoring as the Raiders doubled their lead to 14.

Buchanan hit a jumper with 9:42 remaining, but that would be the Flames' final field goal of the game as UIC went the rest of the night producing only four made free throws. Wright State rattled off 12 unanswered points following the Buchanan bucket, and with the Flames' offense going dormant, that was all the hosts needed to take control.

UIC heads to Motown to face Detroit at Calihan Hall this Saturday, Jan. 30 at 3 p.m. Central.

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1. Download the free UIC Athletics Widget and click on the "UIC Flames Podcasts" link

2. Download podcasts for free on iTunes by searching "UIC Flames."

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