Feb. 19, 2015
Final Stats: UWM 71, UIC 60
CHICAGO - Senior Jay Harris scored a game-high 27 points and surpassed 1,000 for his career, but it was not enough as the UIC men's basketball team (7-21, 3-10 HL) dropped a home contest against Horizon League-foe Milwaukee (11-16, 6-7 HL) on Thursday night by a final of 71-60. The fifth-year transfer now has 1,023 in his career and five 20-point games this season.
Milwaukee senior guard Steve McWhorter led four Panthers in double figures with 21 points as sophomore Akeem Springs followed with 17. UWM forwards J.J. Panoske and Matt Tiby added 14 and 11, respectively.
"Tonight was disappointing," said head coach Howard Moore. "We came out flat and defended well below what we are capable of. The good thing is we are still in the running to host a first-round tournament game."
Milwaukee jumped out to a 10-4 lead by the 13:44 mark after back-to-back threes from McWhorter and Springs. The Flames answered with a 9-3 run to knot the score at 13-13 with 9:12 left in the first half, and then a back-and-forth battle ensued as the lead changed hands six times over the next seven minutes.
Harris drilled two straight triples to give UIC a 26-24 edge with 3:18 left in the half, but UWM closed out the period on a 7-0 run and went in to the locker room ahead 31-26.
The second half remained at most a two-possession lead for UWM until Springs sank a three at the 12:17 mark, putting the Panthers in front by seven (45-38). That lead ballooned to 12 points (54-42) after a 7-0 spurt, which was capped by a Panoske trey with 8:14 left to play.
The Flames executed a 7-0 run of their own and had cut Milwaukee's advantage to 57-52 with 4:52 on the clock. From that point, UWM scored 12 of the next 15 points to reach its largest lead of the night (69-55) and eventually captured their first road win of the season.
Junior Paris Burns had a solid performance with 12 points, six assists and zero turnovers. Over the last eight games he is averaging 16.8 points and 4.8 assists per outing.
Freshman Tai Odiase recorded four blocked shots and now has 38 on the season. He needs just seven more swats to crack UIC's all-time single season leaderboard.
The Flames return to action on Sunday at Oakland with tip scheduled for 2 p.m. CT.
