Jan. 29, 2011
Final Stats
Final Stats in PDF Format
DETROIT - Senior Kristin Petrinec posted career-highs in points and rebounds to help the UIC women's basketball team complete the sweep of a two-game road trip with a matinee victory at Detroit on Saturday, 66-58.
Petrinec narrowly missed out on a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds, while teammate Briana Hinkle led all players with 17 points and five steals in the win for the Flames (10-10, 5-4 Horizon League).
The first half was a back-and-forth affair with the Flames carrying a slim one-point advantage at the break. Both teams got off to slow starts from the field. The stifling UIC defense held Detroit (9-11, 3-6 Horizon League) to 33.3-percent (10-for-30) in the opening half. The Titans returned the favored by forcing three turnovers and holding the visitors scoreless for a 4:22 stretch during the middle of the stanza. The opening 20 minutes featured four tie scores and three lead changes with neither team holding greater than a four-point lead, most recently, when UIC led 22-18 with 3:25 remaining after a running jumper by Kiara Strickland.
Petrinec led the Flames with six points in the first half, while Jasmine Bailey led her team with six rebounds. Sophomore Yar Shayok did the bulk of the heavy lifting for Detroit in the first half by contributing eight points and eight rebounds.
In the second half, in an effort to get her team going and take the Titans out of rhythm, UIC head coach Lisa Ryckbosch began to utilize a zone defense and it paid dividends for the ninth-year bench boss. The Flames used a 13-4 run to build an eight-point lead more than midway through the second half to take the lead for good on Saturday afternoon. A pair of free throws by Jalesa Jones sliced the deficit to three points with 3:34 to go, but that was as close as the home five would come.
"For whatever reason we were in a fog early, but I thought we did a great job in the second half of coming back and getting it back on track," said Ryckbosch after the win.
"We challenged our kids to be road warriors and that's what we were. It was another step-up game with a lot of people helping out. It was a game where a lot of things when wrong, but we had the perseverance and the right feeling among us for people to step up and get the win," said Ryckbosch.
It was the second straight road win for the Flames this season and the fourth overall this campaign. The victory also marked the first time since Jan. 2-4, 2010 that UIC swept a two-game road swing in the Horizon League when they won at Valparaiso and Butler.
Shameia Green was also in double figures with 14 points and she converted three-of-four chances from the charity stripe to help seal the win for UIC.
The Flames will be idle until next Saturday when they begin the second half of the Horizon League schedule and a three-game homestand against the cross-town rival Loyola Ramblers. Loyola got the best of UIC in the first meeting this season on Jan. 8, 69-58, at the Gentile Center. Saturday's rematch is scheduled to tip off at 3 p.m. at the UIC Pavilion.
