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thevalley
64
Valparaiso VALPO 4-11,0-4 MVC
70
Winner UIC UIC 8-7,1-3 MVC
Valparaiso VALPO
4-11,0-4 MVC
64
Final
70
UIC UIC
8-7,1-3 MVC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Valparaiso VALPO 36 28 64
UIC UIC 42 28 70

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Late-Game Lockdown Propels UIC Past Valparaiso, 70-64

Flames hold Beacons without a field goal for final 8:20 to pick up first MVC win of season.

CHICAGO (Jan. 6, 2024) – The UIC men's basketball team used stout defense and timely shooting down the stretch to collect a 70-64 Missouri Valley Conference win over Valparaiso on Saturday night at Credit Union 1 Arena. The Flames held the Beacons to just two points and no baskets during the final 8:20 of the game to preserve the hard-earned victory.
 
Facing a handful of personnel challenges due to illness, UIC delivered a team win in every sense of the word with contributions from a variety of sources. Senior guard Isaiah Rivera (Geneseo, Ill./Geneseo/Colorado State) set the tone with a game-high 24 points, one off his career best, while adding five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Junior forward Filip Skobalj (Belgrade, Serbia/Don Bosco-Schule Rostock) contributed at both ends of the court, scoring all 13 of his points in the first half, while grabbing six rebounds and providing some critical defense and hustle plays in the closing minutes.
 
Graduate student guard Marquise Kennedy (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice/Loyola) battled through illness to nearly post a double-double with eight points and eight rebounds, the latter one off his career high. Senior guard Toby Okani (Orange, N.J./Cushing Academy (Mass.)) was also under the weather on Saturday, but the MVC's leading shot blocker came up with a huge rejection with 1:11 to play to help clinch the win.
 
COACH'S COMMENTS
"Preparation, execution, toughness – those would be the three words I would use to define tonight," said head coach Luke Yaklich. "To hold any team (without a basket) eight minutes at any time is tough to do, but we held them eight minutes to close the game. That's a confidence booster and an (example) of the way it's got to be done. A lot of learning lessons, and some tough, to get to this point tonight, but we'll take it. I love our group. I love our toughness. I love our 'connectedness' and we'll keep growing."
 
FIRST HALF
  • UIC broke the ice first on a layup from Skobalj 66 seconds into the contest.
  • The Flames' defense locked in early, holding Valparaiso to just one basket for the opening eight minutes, but the Beacons stayed within striking distance with a handful of free throws.
  • Junior guard Yusef Salih (Gainesville, Va./Highland School/Idaho) drove strong to the cup and converted an old-fashioned three-point play to put UIC in front, 13-8 with 13:24 remaining in the half.

 
  • The Beacons put together a 7-0 run to take a 15-13 lead with 10:36 to go.
  • The two sides exchanged the lead six times and were tied on three other occasions during the ensuing 4:39 before Rivera drilled a three-pointer for a 29-27 UIC lead at the 5:57 mark.
  • That trey ignited a 13-3 Flames' run that also included a conventional three-point play and a layup from Rivera, the latter stretching UIC's lead to its largest of the half at 39-30 with 2:40 to play in the period.
  • Valparaiso scored the next four points, but Salih stemmed the tide with a top-side triple at the 1:33 juncture and UIC would ultimately take a 42-36 lead to the locker room.
  • Skobalj led all scorers with 13 points in the first half, while Rivera added 11 points.
 

SECOND HALF
  • Valparaiso twice got within a point in the opening two minutes of the second half, but in a sign of hustle plays to come, junior guard Ethan Pickett (Pensacola, Fla./Cherokee/Triton) snared a one-handed offensive rebound and whipped a pass to Rivera on the left wing and the veteran buried a three-pointer for a 47-43 lead (18:14).
  • The Beacons scored six of the next seven points and took a 49-48 lead on Isaiah Stafford's three-pointer with 17:01 remaining.
  • There were five more lead changes during the next four minutes before freshman forward Nathan Ojukwu (Boise, Idaho/DME Academy (Fla.)) powered to the rim for a layup that give the Flames a 54-53 lead and UIC never trailed again (12:53).
  • It remained a one-possession game past the midpoint of the second half, with Valparaiso twice tying the score (60-60 and 62-62), the second time with 8:20 left on a layup by Stafford.
  • From there, the UIC defense locked in and energetically protected its home court, forcing the Beacons to misfire on their final 10 shots (and end the game 1-for-13).
  • Kennedy put the Flames in front to stay at 64-62 on a tough fallaway jumper in the lane at the 6:29 mark.
  • Rivera added a putback layup on UIC's next possession (5:53), Pickett did likewise at the 3:29 juncture, and Rivera capped the Flames' game-ending 8-2 run by canning a pair of free throws with 2:03 to play.

 
NOTES
  • UIC continues its recent stretch of strong ball security, registering a season-low seven turnovers (previous was eight vs. Incarnate Word on Dec. 21) and finishing with 10 or fewer giveaways for the fifth consecutive game.
  • Rivera's 24 points just missed his career high of 25 points set on Nov. 10 against Little Rock. It was Rivera's fourth career 20-point game, all of which have come this season following his transfer from Colorado State.
  • Kennedy's eight rebounds were the most he has recorded in a UIC uniform and one off his career high of nine rebounds, set twice before while at Loyola (most recently on Nov. 9, 2021, vs. Coppin State).
  • Skobalj posted his fifth double-figure scoring game of the season and second in a row.
  • Salih tied his season high with six points (also on Dec. 12 vs. Green Bay and Dec. 16 vs. Western Michigan), with all of Saturday's points coming in the first half.
  • UIC improves to 33-27 all-time against Valparaiso and has won four of its last five games against the Beacons.
 
UP NEXT
UIC returns to action next Wednesday, Jan. 10, when it travels to Cedar Falls, Iowa, for a 7 p.m. (CT) Missouri Valley Conference matchup at Northern Iowa. The game will be televised live from the McLeod Center on ESPN+, with the free live Flames Network radio broadcast and live stats both available at UICFlames.com.
 
Tickets for all UIC basketball home games can be purchased online through Ticketmaster and UICFlames.com/Tickets, as well as through the UIC Athletics Ticket Office (312-413-UIC1) or by visiting the Credit Union 1 Arena box office on game night.
 
For more information, fans are encouraged to visit UICFlames.com, or follow the Flames on social media through X (@UIC_MBB and @UICFlames) and Instagram (@uic_mbb and @uicflames).
 
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