CHICAGO – The UIC women's basketball team will finally return home to the UIC Pavilion to take on long time Horizon League-foe Cleveland State on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 4 p.m. CT.

Thursday's matchup will be the second meeting between the two teams this season, with Cleveland State taking the first game 70-67 last month despite a strong comeback effort from the Flames.

Starting Five

• Brittney Byrd remains in the top five in the Horizon League in scoring, and leads UIC with an average of 14.9 points per game. Byrd led the Flames on Saturday (Feb. 3) against IUPUI with 14 points for her 15th double-digit performance of the season. She leads the squad with 13 games as the top scorer.
• Taylor Toney put in 12 points against the Jags for her 18th double-digit game this season. The junior has netted 10-plus points in the last four games and in seven of the last eight.  
• Catera Etheridge also had a strong showing in Indianapolis on Saturday, netting six points while also tying her career-high assists (5) for the second time this season.
• UIC is second in the Horizon League in offensive rebounds with 14.6 per game.  Gabryelle Johnson leads the team with 74, and has nearly as many offensive rebounds as defensive (79).  Four players (Johnson, Byrd, Toney, Lampley) have at least one game with five offensive rebounds, and the Flames have out-offensive rebounded their opponents in 18 of 22 games, including Saturday's game at IUPUI.
• Head coach Regina Miller sent the same starting five (Etheridge, Byrd, Toney, Johnson, Zagorac) out in each of the first 14 games of the season, and that lineup has appeared once again in the past three contests.  The starters are getting the bulk of the minutes, too. Two of them (Byrd and Toney) are in the Horizon League's top ten in minutes played.  Byrd leads the conference at 36.0 minutes per game.

Last Time Out

• UIC went up against second-place IUPUI on Saturday, wrapping up its five-game road series with a 68-43 loss. Both teams appeared sluggish in the first quarter, but the Jaguar offense came alive in the second and fourth quarters to surge ahead for the win.
• Neither team shot above 25 percent in the first quarter, but the Jags put in solid performances in both the second (71.4 percent) and fourth (63.6 percent) quarters to surpass the Flames.
• The Flames attempted more shots (54) compared to the Jags (49), but the home team was more efficient, making 46.9 percent of all shots to UIC's 35.2 percent.
• The two teams were even in the paint, each scoring 24 points. Both benches were also evenly matched, with UIC's bench putting in nine to IUPUI's 10.

Visiting Vikings

• The Vikings have won their last four straight and five of their last six for a 16-7 record overall and an 8-4 mark in conference play.
• Cleveland State is number one in the League in blocked shots, averaging 3.9 per game as a squad. The Vikings are also second in the conference in steals with a 9.3 steals per game average.
• Cleveland State took down Oakland 86-66 on Saturday (Feb. 3) for its fourth-straight victory. The Vikings had four players reach double-digits, led by Khayla Livingston's 27-point showing. Olivia Voskuhl (16), Ashanti Abshaw (11) and Rachel Slaney (11) were the other Vikings in double figures, while Slaney led the team in rebounds with 10 for her first double-double of the season.
• Livingston is making her way up the Viking record books, and is just five three-pointers away (213) from becoming the all-time leader in career threes.

For additional game notes and a link to the live stats, please see the blue box above.