CHICAGO - On Wednesday, January 27 it was announced that the UIC women's basketball program had paused team activities and canceled its two-game series at Wright State scheduled for Jan. 29-30, due to COVID-related matters within the Flames' Tier I personnel. Later that day it was discovered that those matters were caused by a laboratory processing error that had indicated a false positive test result. While the Flames have been cleared to resume activity immediately; the games at Wright State remain canceled.

Instead, UIC will be hosting Rockford University for a non-conference tilt on Saturday, Jan. 30 at 3 p.m. CT inside Credit Union 1 Arena.

WITH A WIN, UIC WOULD:

• Improve to 3-9 on the season
• Win their first-ever meeting with Rockford University
• Snap a five-game losing streak
• Win their second home game of the season

LAST TIME OUT

• The Flames traveled to Youngstown State for a pair of rematches, falling 88-78 on Friday (Jan. 22) and 71-55 on Saturday (71-55).
• A total of 16 threes fell on either side of the court in Friday's contest - nine for the victorious Penguins and seven for the Flames.
• UIC had four players reach double figures for the fifth time this season in the loss, as Jaida McCloud (20 points), Keona Schenck (19 points), Tiana Jackson (15 points) and Kristian Young (10 points) paced UIC's offense.
• On Saturday, the Flames trailed by three at half but were unable to stymie the Penguins' second-half surge, which put up 43 points and shot 62.5 percent (15-for-24) in the final two frames to put UIC away for good.
• Young led the way with 15 points, while Jackson also turned in her second straight double-digit performance, shooting 6-for-11 with a pair of rebounds and a pair of steals.

REJUVINATED OFFENSE

• UIC's offense has already shown a vast improvement from last year, averaging 66.4 points per game compared to 49.7 points at the end of the 2019-20 season. At this point in 2019-20 (11 games in), the Flames were averaging 47.5 points per game as a team.
• The Flames' 66.3 points per game stands at third in the Horizon League.
• UIC also ranks fifth in the conference in field goal percentage, shooting .406 overall. 11 games into the 2019-20 season, the Flames were shooting .309 as a squad.
• The Flames have four players averaging double digits in Jaida McCloud (14.2 ppg), Kristian Young (12.1 ppg), Keona Schenck (10.9 ppg) and Daijah Smith (10.4 ppg). All four rank in the League's top-20 in scoring.
• UIC also has three of the League's top-20 leaders in assists. Kristian Young ranks second in the conference with 4.6 assists per game, followed by Tiana Jackson in eighth with 3.2 assists per game. Jaida McCloud ranks 19th in the League, averaging 2.3 helpers per game.

SCOUTING THE REGENTS

• Saturday's contest will serve as the first-ever meeting between the Flames and the Regents.
• Rockford has yet to start its 2020-21 season and will be making its season debut at UIC. The Regents went 4-21 last season with a 2-18 record in the NACC.
• Junior Neve York returns for the Regents this year after averaging 12.6 points per game in 2019-20. Yerk also led the team in rebounds last season, pulling down an average of 8.6 boards per game.
• The Regents' roster boasts lots of young talent, with 11 freshmen on the 2020-21 squad. The rest of the roster is made up of five juniors and one senior.