EVANSVILLE, Ind. (Jan. 22, 2025) — Junior guard
Jordan Mason (San Antonio, Texas/Clark/Texas State) scored a season-high 19 points to pace four UIC players in double figures and added five assists, four rebounds and two steals as the Flames earned their ninth win in 11 games with a 78-67 Missouri Valley Conference win over Evansville on Wednesday night at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. With the victory, UIC (13-6, 6-3 MVC) has its highest win total since the 2021-22 season and improves to 6-2 on the road this year.
Sophomore guard
Ahmad Henderson II (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice/Niagara) had all 16 of his points in the first half, making 6-of-7 shots and all three of his 3-point attempts in the opening 20 minutes. Redshirt senior forward
Modestas Kancleris (Kaunas, Lithuania/Varpas Gimnazija/Creighton/Cal State Bakersfield) nearly posted a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, while graduate student guard
Tyem Freeman (Springfield, Mo./Hillcrest/UCF/Kent State) added 10 points for the Flames.
UIC broke away from a 22-all tie by outscoring Evansville (6-14, 3-6) by a 25-10 margin over the final 7:17 of the first half. The Flames stretched the lead as wide as 20 points before the Purple Aces rallied late, but never got closer than seven points. As a unit, UIC shot 48.1 percent from the floor and connected on 11-of-31 three-point tries while posting a +10 rebounding margin.
The full box score and play-by-play recap from Wednesday's win at Evansville can be found
here.
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COACH'S COMMENTS
SOCIAL MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
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BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- UIC has its highest overall, conference and road win totals since the 2021-22 season, its last in the Horizon League (14-16 overall, 9-10 in HL, 8-8 on the road).
- The Flames improve to 9-2 all-time against Evansville, including a 4-2 record on the road. UIC's 11-point win was its second-largest margin of victory in the series (70-54 on Nov. 21, 2003, also on the road in Evansville).
- UIC moves to 6-2 on the road this year, with both losses by single digits (83-74 at Northwestern on Nov. 12; 92-87 at Belmont on Jan. 4).
- The Flames' current stretch of nine wins in 11 games is its best run over such a span since the 2017-18 season, when they had a similar 9-2 record over 11 games from Jan. 18-Feb. 19, 2018.
- Mason's season-high 19 points topped his previous high of 18 points in UIC's win over La Salle on Nov. 22 at the Boardwalk Battle in Daytona Beach, Fla. Mason also tied his season high with five assists, a mark he's hit four other times this year (most recently on Jan. 4 at Belmont).
- Henderson's 16 points were two shy of his season high achieved in that same Jan. 4 Belmont game.
- Kancleris finished one rebound away from his second double-double of the season (he had 12 points/11 rebounds in his UIC debut in the Nov. 4 season-opening win over St. Francis-Ill.).
- Graduate student guard Joshua Reaves (Hamden, Conn./South Kent School/Mount St. Mary's) scored his first points since the Nov. 22 La Salle win in Daytona Beach after which he missed six weeks with a shoulder injury.
- UIC made at least 10 three-pointers in a game for the ninth time this season.
- The Flames had four double-figure scorers for the 12th game this year.
UP NEXT
UIC will reach the midpoint of the MVC season Saturday as the Flames welcome Southern Illinois to Credit Union 1 Arena for a 2 p.m. (CT) tipoff. ESPN+ will carry the game live, while fans are encouraged to listen to the game free of charge on the Flames Network at
UICFlames.com.
FOLLOW THE FLAMES
For more information on UIC men's basketball, 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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