Dec. 22, 2014
Final Stats: NU 63, UIC 46
EVANSTON, Ill. - The UIC men's basketball team (3-10) dropped an in-state rivalry game on Monday afternoon at Northwestern (8-4) by a final score of 63-46. The Flames were down 18 late in the first half and cut the lead down to seven with 6:10 to play, but the Wildcats pulled away down stretch. Junior D'Juan Miller scored a team-high 13 points and totaled a career-best seven assists to go along with five rebounds. Northwestern was paced by freshman guard Bryant McIntosh with 22 points on 7-of-9 shooting.
"It's frustrating to see how well we play in the second half and still find ourselves in a hole," said head coach Howard Moore. "I thought D'Juan's energy in the second half changed the game and I expect to see that out of him going forward. We will continue to stay positive through this rough patch and be ready for another tough road game at Bradley."
After a jumper by Lance Whitaker 18 seconds into the contest, the Flames suffered a 7-minute and 33-second scoring drought. During that time, Northwestern was able to amass a 16-2 lead behind nine early points from Alex Olah. The junior center finished the day with 17 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
NU held a 31-16 lead going in to halftime after UIC senior Marc Brown converted a three-point play. Brown ended the game with eight points.
The Flames came out ready in the second half and outscored NU, 10-5, in the first five-and-half minutes. Miller scored six straight points for UIC to kick start the mini-run.
Back-to-back threes by Miller and junior Jason McClellan pulled the Flames to within seven of the Wildcats (45-38) with 6:48 left to play. Both squads traded a pair of free throws to make the count 47-40 with 6:10 on the clock. Seven points was the closest UIC came to NU for the rest of the game.
Junior Jake Wiegand collected his fifth double-digit rebounding performance of the season with a game-high 10 boards and chipped in five points. Wiegand grabbed six offensive rebounds helping account for 18 boards on the offensive glass for UIC.
Freshman Tai Odiase pulled down six rebounds and blocked two shots, bringing his season swats total to 26. Odiase ranks within the nation's top 5 for blocked shots among freshmen.
The Flames return to action on Sunday, Dec. 28 at Bradley (4-8) with tipoff scheduled for 4 p.m. CT. Comcast SportsNet Chicago will carry the game live with audio coverage available on ESPN 1000.
