Feb. 18, 2015
UIC GAME NOTES
HEADLINES
The Opening Tip
The UIC men's basketball team will compete at home for the first time since Feb. 4 this Thursday against Milwaukee after a three-game road trip. The Flames will play three of their four remaining regular season contests at the UIC Pavilion all within a span of 10 days. These two teams last met in Milwaukee on Jan. 29 as the Panthers came away with a 71-65 victory. Thursday's match-up will be the 65th all-time meeting between the two programs as UWM leads the series by a margin of 40-24. Panther senior guard Steve McWhorter leads Milwaukee in scoring and assists with averages of 14.0 and 4.3 per game, respectively. UWM has won three of its last five outings, but owns a 0-11 road record this season. They hold a 5-7 Horizon League record with an overall mark of 10-16.
A Win vs. UWM would…
…give UIC four Horizon League wins for just the second time in six seasons … give the Flames a 6-7 home record … give UIC three wins in its last four games … give the Flames a 3-2 February record for the first time since 2007-08 … give UIC a win versus UWM in each of the last three seasons.
Harris Needs Four More to Reach 1,000
Senior Jay Harris needs four points against Milwaukee on Thursday night to reach 1,000 for his career. Harris totaled 458 points during his freshman and sophomore seasons at Valparaiso and then scored 217 at Wagner last year. The Aurora, Ill. native owns a team-best 323 total points this season. The last player to achieve 1,000 career points in a Flames uniform was current graduate manager Robo Kreps.
Tourney Talk
With four regular season games left to play, seeding for the 2015 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament is beginning to take shape. If the season ended today (Feb. 18), UIC would have the No. 6 seed and host seventh-seeded Wright State in a first round contest on March 3. Valparaiso would hold the No. 1 seed as they currently tout the league's best record at 11-2.
Road Warriors
The Flames are looking forward to three of their final four games at home after spending much of the last month on the road. UIC just finished its fourth three-game road trip of the season which included six away dates in the last eight outings. In a span of 27 days from Jan. 20 to Feb. 15, the Flames have traveled 3,250 miles and have spent more than 50 hours on a bus. This does not include a diverted flight to Louisville last Saturday due to a winter snow storm when UIC flew to Cleveland.
Tremendous Trio
Jay Harris (25), Paris Burns (21) and Ahman Fells (17) combined to score 63 points at Wright State last Thursday. The 63-point total is UIC's highest three-man output during a non-overtime game since Feb. 15, 2009, when Josh Mayo (25), Robo Kreps (25) and Tori Boyd (14) netted 64 versus Valparaiso. Harris, Burns and Fells have teamed up to average 42.4 points per game during conference play which accounts for more than 62 percent of UIC's average output.
Ah-Man Among Boys
Senior Ahman Fells has been playing the best basketball of his career during the last month-and-a-half after he was inserted into the starting lineup 14 games ago on Dec. 28. Over that span, he is averaging 12.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and shooting a team-high 58 percent (63-of-105) from the floor. The Chicago native is playing even better during the last six games, averaging 17.2 points per game, while shooting 64 percent from the field and 63 percent from downtown. Fells set a career-high 28 points against first-place Valparaiso on Jan. 31, shooting 11-of-13 from the floor and 6-of-7 from deep. His 11 made field goals not only set a new career-best, but also equaled the single-game high for a UIC player during the Howard Moore era. The last UIC player to record six threes in a game was Daniel Barnes on March 20, 2013. Fells is the only Flame to have posted back-to-back 20-point games this season. The 181 points that Fells has scored in his last 14 games accounts for 63 percent of his career total of 286.
Paris Burns Bright
Junior Paris Burns has scored 14 or more points in each of his last seven games and is averaging a team-best 17.4 points and 4.6 assists during that span. The Chicago native is also shooting 50 percent from three-point range during the last seven games after hitting just 17 percent in his previous 18 contests. Against Wright State on Feb. 12, Burns scored the game's first nine points with a trio of made threes in a span of 81 seconds. He has made at least one three-pointer in each of the last seven games which is the team's longest active streak.
Threes For Days
In the last four games, UIC is shooting lights out from three-point range with a percentage of 50.6 (42-of-83). The Flames knocked down 11 threes against Oakland (Feb. 4) and Wright State (Feb. 12) and then a season-best 12 triples at Detroit (Feb. 8). UIC's three-point shooting performance (64.7%) versus the Raiders is the program's top mark since Nov. 23, 2011. During league play, the Flames ranked tied-for-first in the HL in threes per game with an average of 7.3.
Harris is a Scoring Machine
Fifth-year senior Jay Harris ranks as UIC's leading scorer this season with an average of 14.0 points per game, which also ranks ninth in the Horizon League. Harris has scored in double-digits 16 times through his 23 games at UIC and 20 times over his last 27 outings, dating back to his final four games at Wagner last season. On Dec. 11 against UCF, Harris exploded for a career-high 32 points and was later named the Horizon League Player of the Week. He owns four 20-plus point performances this season, including 25 this past Thursday at WSU.
McGuire on Fire
Sophomore Markese McGuire is shooting 9-of-14 from three-point range during the last four games with performances of 4-of-5 (Oakland) and 4-of-6 (Detroit). McGuire netted a career-high 16 points versus Oakland on Feb. 4 and followed that up with 14 at Detroit on Feb. 8. The Elkhart, Ind. native is shooting 43.5 percent from behind the arc this season. McGuire was named first-team All-State in Indiana his senior year in high school and totaled 1,000 points during his prep career at Elkhart Memorial.
Excelling in the Classroom
The UIC men's basketball team had a tremendous fall semester in the classroom as seven players recorded GPAs of 3.0 or better. Topping that list was freshman David Ramon who totaled a perfect 4.0. Following close behind was sophomore Hans-Christian Lauer with a GPA of 3.81 and junior Jason McClellan with a mark of 3.69.
Oh So Close
UIC has played in several close games so far this season including 13 contests that have been decided by single digits. Of those 13 games UIC owns a record of 3-10. In outcomes decided by six points or less, the Flames are 2-7 which include five league affairs.
Harris From the Foul Line
Senior Jay Harris is one of the top free throw shooters in the country this season. He ranks 14th in the nation and first in the Horizon League with a mark of 89.1 percent (122-of-137), while his 122 made free throws sits tied-for-ninth on UIC's all-time single-season leaderboard. Harris also ranks third in the NCAA among career-active free throw shooters with a four-year percentage of .897 (244-of-272). Harris has the opportunity to break UIC's single-season free throw shooting record, which currently sits at 88.6 percent held by Josh Mayo. The Aurora, Ill. native sank 13-of-14 from the charity stripe at WSU on Feb. 12, including 12-of-12 in the final six minutes.
Odiase Still Ranks Second in Blocks
Freshman Tai Odiase missed six games and has played limited minutes in his last eight outings due to a lower leg injury suffered in late December. Despite his lack of playing time, Odiase still ranks second in the Horizon League in blocks per game with an average of 1.6. Fronting the conference is Valpo's Vashil Fernandez with an average of 3.0. Odiase has 34 swats on the season and needs just 11 more to crack UIC's single-season top-10 leaderboard.
One of the Nation's Best
The Flames have been one of the nation's best free-throw shooting teams so far this season as UIC is averaging 73.8 percent (439-of-595). That figure currently ranks 31st in the country and first in the Horizon League, while UIC's 439 made free throws ranks 11th in the NCAA. UIC touts seven players that are shooting above 70 percent from the charity stripe. The 2012-13 team currently holds the all-time record for free throw shooting with a single-season mark of .752.
