NORMAL, Ill. (Feb. 7, 2024) – Sophomore guard
CJ Jones (East St. Louis, Ill./East St. Louis) scored a team-high 13 points and senior guard
Toby Okani (Orange, N.J./Cushing Academy (Mass.)) came up with three clutch plays in the final 90 seconds to help UIC earn a gritty 61-56 Missouri Valley Conference road win at Illinois State on Wednesday night at CEFCU Arena in Normal, Ill.
Okani finished with nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds, registering a key block and rebound with 1:30 left, adding another rebound with 46 seconds to go, and then converting both ends of a 1-and-1 with two seconds left to secure the victory.
Jones and Okani were just two of several contributors for the Flames (9-15, 2-11 MVC). Senior guard
Isaiah Rivera (Geneseo, Ill./Geneseo/Colorado State) scored 11 points and junior guard
Ethan Pickett (Pensacola, Fla./Cherokee/Triton) buried a critical fallaway jumper on the right baseline as the shot clock expired to give UIC a five-point lead with 17 seconds to go.
The Flames' defense was on point Wednesday, limiting Illinois State to a .346 field-goal percentage, the lowest by a UIC opponent in MVC play this year, and just 5-of-16 (.313) from three-point range, including 0-for-3 from distance in the second half. UIC also won the battle on the boards, 38-31 and collected seven steals.
COACH'S COMMENTS
"We played pretty good basketball for 36 of 40 (minutes)," said head coach
Luke Yaklich. "That's what we've been asking of the guys — that you don't have to play 40 perfect (minutes); we'd take 36. Really excited for our team. We have a tough group of kids and really good kids that haven't lost their lust for winning and have hardened their resolve for losing. Each preparation we've stayed the same, taking some different approaches with practice, but the one thing that we've done is we've stayed true to our preparation. We've been on the wrong end of a couple of unlucky breaks here and there, and a couple of runs throughout different games that we could have impacted in a more positive manner. Tonight, I felt we did that. We got off to a shaky start in the second half and we responded well with some really good positive energy and some positive plays by different people. It's a good road win — any win in our league is a good win (and) a road win almost feels like it's worth three."
FIRST HALF
- Early baskets by junior forward Filip Skobalj (Belgrade, Serbia/Don Bosco-Schule Rostock) and Jones forged an early 4-4 tie just over two minutes into the game.
- The teams then traded mini 5-0 runs, with Pickett getting out on the break and then doing the dirty work for a second-chance layup to make it 9-9 at the 14:41 mark.
- Freshman forward Nathan Ojukwu (Boise, Idaho/DME Academy (Fla.)) and Jones converted buckets to create another tie, this one at 13-13 with 12:14 remaining in the half.
- Illinois State briefly took a pair of four-point leads, the second at 20-16 with 8:24 to go.
- UIC responded in lightning fashion with six points in 24 seconds off an old-fashioned three-point play by graduate student guard Marquise Kennedy (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice/Loyola) and a three-pointer by Skobalj, the latter giving the Flames a 22-20 lead and forcing a Redbird timeout (7:46).
- Jones and Ojukwu then canned three-pointers (the latter the first of his college career) around a deep ball from Illinois State and UIC led 28-23 with 5:13 left.
- The Redbirds got back within two at the 2:29 juncture, but Kennedy hit a tough layup in the lane with the shot clock winding down and, after ISU turned the ball over on the in-bounds pass, Rivera followed with a three-pointer to give the Flames their largest lead of the half (33-26) with 1:46 to play.
- Illinois State hit a basket on its next possession, but that marked the final points for either side in the period.
- Skobalj tied for game-high honors with eight points in the first half, while Jones added seven points. UIC also shot well in the opening 20 minutes, converting 5-of-8 three-pointers and hitting at a .464 clip overall (13-of-28).
SECOND HALF
- ISU challenged the Flames out of the gate in the second half, scoring the first four points to claw within 33-32 less than a minute into the frame.
- Rivera came back with a critical three-pointer at the 17:46 mark to stop the Redbirds' momentum and restore UIC's two-possession lead (36-32).
- Illinois State scored six of the next eight points to draw even at 38-38 with 15:26 to play. However, that would be as close as the Redbirds would come the rest of the way, never taking the lead on the Flames.
- Okani put UIC in front for good on his team's next possession, going strong to the bucket for a layup, and sophomore guard Steven Clay (Milwaukee, Wis./Menomenee Falls) did likewise on the following sequence to give the Flames a 42-38 lead with 14:13 to go.
- The teams then went scoreless for nearly three minutes before trading baskets (Jones converting for UIC) heading into the 12-minute media timeout (44-40, 11:08).
- The Flames stretched their lead to 49-43 at the 8:31 mark when Rivera got downhill and finished through contact at the rim for three the hard way.
- UIC went on an 8-3 run across a three-minute stretch late in the second half, grabbing a 57-48 lead when Okani rebounded his own miss in traffic and powered back up for the layup.
- Illinois State would not go quietly, scoring six in a row to whittle the margin to 57-54 with 2:36 remaining.
- UIC came up with defensive stops on five of the Redbirds' last six possessions in the closing 90 seconds, starting with Okani's clutch block and rebound.
- After Okani's second rebound with 46 seconds left, the Flames used a timeout and worked the ball to Pickett, who delivered a backbreaking jumper from the right baseline with 17 seconds to go.
- ISU got back within three points, then forced a turnover with seven seconds left, but the Flames got two takeaways of their own when Jones and Okani came up steals, the latter while being fouled with :02 left and the veteran UIC wing converted both ends of the 1-and-1 to clinch the victory.
NOTES
- UIC picks up its first road win at Illinois State since Nov. 30, 2004, when the Flames defeated the Redbirds, 60-56.
- This marked the 19th time in 29 series meetings between UIC and Illinois State that the game was decided by 10 points or less, including the past five (and all four since the Flames joined the Missouri Valley Conference prior to last season).
- Okani posted his third consecutive double-digit rebounding game, his longest streak of 10+ rebounding games in his two seasons at UIC.
- Okani is up to a career-high 51 blocks this season and just one away from moving into the top 10 on the Flames' single-season list (Sherell Ford had 52 swats in 1994-95).
- The Flames held Illinois State to a .346 field-goal percentage, the lowest by a UIC opponent in conference play this year and lowest by any Flames' opponent since Dec. 16, when UIC limited Western Michigan to .320 shooting (the Flames are 5-0 this year when holding the opposition below 35-percent shooting).
- Ojukwu scored five points on Wednesday, one off his season high set on Nov. 19 against Aurora, and connected on his first career three-pointer.
- Kennedy continues to close in on two personal milestones, now having 990 career points and 194 career assists.
UP NEXT
UIC returns to the friendly confines of Credit Union 1 Arena on Sunday for a 3 p.m. (CT) conference clash with Northern Iowa. ESPN+ will stream the game live, while the Flames Network radio feed can be heard live and free of charge through
UICFlames.com.
Sunday's game is also the nightcap of a UIC basketball doubleheader at Credit Union 1 Arena. The UIC women's basketball team will play host to Indiana State in the opener at noon (CT).
Fans can catch all the action of both games on Sunday for the price of just one ticket.
Tickets for Sunday's games, and all remaining 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 day.
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).
|
