Jan. 22, 2011
Final Stats
Final Stats in PDF Format
CHICAGO - Chloe Hamilton scored a career-high 27 points to lead her Butler Bulldogs over the UIC women's basketball team at the UIC Pavilion on Saturday afternoon, 66-61.
The Flames (8-10, 3-4 Horizon League) led by three at the half, but a second-half surge by the Bulldogs helped them improve to 7-0 in Horizon League play this season with the win. The Flames fell to 3-4 in conference this season. The loss also snapped a five-game home winning streak for UIC dating back to Nov. 30.
Butler led by as many as 10 in the second half, but the Flames cut the deficit to three points with two seconds to go following a lay-up by Jasmine Bailey. However, the Bulldogs Alyssa Pittman was fouled and drained two free throws with five-tenths of a second remaining to seal the win for Butler.
Butler shot 50-percent (12-for-24) in the second half, while committing only five turnovers. The Bulldogs also shot 80-percent (16-for-20) from the charity stripe in the second half.
"We didn't get stops and we put them at the free throw line," said UIC head coach Lisa Ryckbosch. "Defensively, we didn't have our edge on. There was a stretch where we'd score and then put them at the lines a few times in a row. We dug ourselves a bad hole."
The two teams played about as evenly as they could through the first half with three ties and eight lead changes during the opening 20 minutes. The Bulldogs held a narrow two-point advantage with a little over a minute to play following a jumper by leading scorer Brittany Bowen. Kiara Strickland answered with a lay-up from the left side moments later and following a Butler miss, Cree Nix corralled the rebound with about 24 seconds to play and the Flames called a timeout to set up one last shot. It was Strickland who answered for UIC once again, this time with her first three-pointer of the season from the right wing with less than 10 seconds to go to give the home team a three-point half time advantage, 29-26.
Bowen and teammate Chloe Hamilton led all players with 10 points apiece in the first half. Strickland, who entered the contest averaging 4.0 points per game, led the way for UIC with seven off the bench, while Bailey had five rebounds to lead the Flames. Bowen and Becca Bornhorst also pulled down five rebounds in the first half for the Bulldogs.
UIC's leading scorer this season, Shameia Green, who was held to just two points in Thursday's win over Valparaiso, regained her scoring touch to lead the Flames with 18 points. Sophomore Taylor Foulks was the only other UIC player in double figures with 10 points on Saturday. Bailey led all players with 11 boards in the ballgame.
The Flames will hit the road for their next two contests beginning with a game on Thursday, Jan. 27 at Wright State at 6 p.m. CT. The brief trip concludes on Saturday with a 1 p.m. matinee at Detroit.
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