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Chris Kohley

Men's Basketball Back on the Road Sunday at Yale

Flames make their first visit to the state of Connecticut since their inaugural NCAA Tournament appearance in 1998

12/6/2025 10:02:00 AM

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – UIC is back on the road for three of its next four games, beginning Sunday with a 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET matchup at Yale. The Bulldogs are ranked No. 3 (and receiving a first-place vote) in the latest College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 poll. Yale is the first of three consecutive opponents for the Flames who are ranked in the top 10 of the College Insider poll and all three are also appearing in the top 100 of the KenPom ratings.

Sunday's matinee from John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn., will be broadcast live on ESPN+, with Jim Cain (play-by-play) and JJ Duke (color) on the call.

UIC is playing in the state of Connecticut for only the second time and first since March 12, 1998, which remains a landmark date in Flames' basketball history. That was UIC's first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament when the No. 9 seed Flames faced eighth-seeded Charlotte at the Hartford Civic Center (now known as PeoplesBank Arena), falling to the 49ers, 77-62. The Flames' only other trip to New England came on Feb. 13, 1983, when they dropped a 92-76 decision at Boston University.

GAME #9
UIC "Flames" (4-4, 0-0 MVC) at Yale "Bulldogs" (9-1, 0-0 Ivy League)
When: Sunday, Dec. 7th  |  1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET
Where: New Haven, Conn.  |  John J. Lee Amphitheater
TV: ESPN+ (Jim Cain, p-b-p/JJ Duke, color)
Radio: None
Live Stats: SIDEARM

SERIES BREAKDOWN
  • UIC and Yale will be meeting for the third time, and the second consecutive year. The Flames and Bulldogs have each won once in the abbreviated history between the squads.
  • The last time they met on Nov. 8, 2024, UIC posted a 91-79 victory at Credit Union 1 Arena over No. 13 (Mid-Major) Yale, taking the lead for good on a 22-5 run to start the second half. Among current UIC players, junior guard Ahmad Henderson II had 11 points and seven assists in last year's matchup with Yale.
  • The Bulldogs won the only other meeting in the series, a 70-58 decision on Nov. 21, 2014, at the Men Against Breast Cancer Classic in Kent, Ohio.
  • UIC is 7-3 all-time against Ivy League schools (1-1 on the road) and is playing on an Ivy League campus for the first time since Dec. 21, 2006 (a 90-78 loss at Penn). Last year, the Flames defeated Yale and Dartmouth (69-68 in OT).
  • Sunday's game will mark UIC's inaugural visit to Yale's John J. Lee Amphitheater, the first of at least two new venues the Flames will play in this season (UIC will also make its first trip to Charlotte's Halton Arena on Dec. 21).

MORE ON YALE
  • Yale has won either the Ivy League regular-season or tournament title (or both) in each of the past six years (no competition in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), advancing to the NCAA Tournament four times in that span (and reaching the second round in 2024).
  • The Bulldogs have been ranked in the top 10 of the College Insider Mid-Major poll for the first month of the 2025-26 season, rising to their current position at No. 3 following a 9-1 start to the campaign.
  • Yale has won six in a row, most recently ousting non-Division I opponents SUNY Maritime (117-53) and Brandeis (79-61) at home earlier this week.
  • Senior forward Nick Townsend leads the Bulldogs in scoring (17.5 ppg.), rebounding (7.3 rpg.) and assists (4.6 apg.), while sophomore forwards Isaac Celiscar and Riley Fox each add 13.9 points per game.
  • Head coach James Jones is in his 26th season at Yale with a 427-320 career record. He is 1-1 all-time against UIC.

NOTING THE FLAMES
  • While most of UIC's current roster has not faced Yale previously, a couple of Flames do have experience against the Bulldogs. Along with junior guard Ahmad Henderson competing for UIC in last year's game against Yale, graduate student guard Sam Silverstein played against the Bulldogs four times while suiting up for Harvard (2020-21 through 2022-23). His best outing against Yale came at home on Feb. 9, 2022, with 12 points and four rebounds.
  • UIC is in the midst of playing eight of its first 12 contests away from home. In fact, the Flames will not play back-to-back home games at Credit Union 1 Arena until the season is nearly two months old (Dec. 29 vs. Illinois Tech; Jan. 1 vs. Murray State).
  • Through the first month of the season, one of the brighter spots for UIC has been the growth of redshirt freshman forward Jayce Nathaniel. After averaging 4.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in three games last season, the Atlanta native has more than doubled his scoring output (8.9 ppg.) and has nearly done the same with his rebounding production (5.3 rpg.). He has also scored in double figures four times this year, including a career-high 16 points at Oregon State on Nov. 7, and posted his first career double-double on Wednesday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff with 11 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.
  • UIC's dynamic freshman guard duo of Andy Johnson and Rashund Washington Jr. ranks second and fourth on the team in scoring this year, combining to average over 23 points per game (Johnson - 13.9 ppg./tops among all Missouri Valley Conference freshmen; Washington 9.3 ppg.). They have both scored in double figures in four games this season, including three of the past five outings (Detroit Mercy, Chicago State, High Point, Robert Morris).
  • Graduate student Abdul Momoh has been a strong rim protector for the Flames this season, ranking fourth in the MVC in blocks (1.63 bpg.) and recording multiple blocked shots in four games, including three of his last five (highlighted by a season-best four swats on Nov. 20 against High Point).
  • UIC has looked sharp against its fellow Chicagoland schools across all sports during the 2025-26 academic year. Thus far, Flames teams are 10-0-2 head-to-head against Windy City opponents this year (3-0 volleyball; 3-0-1 men's soccer; 2-0 men's basketball; 1-0-1 women's soccer; 1-0 women's basketball), the best intracity record by any of Chicago's Division I schools.
  • On Nov. 11 against St. Francis, the Flames shot a sizzling 65.1 percent from the floor (its best since Jan. 29, 2005 - .667 at Butler) and 66.7 percent from three-point range (best since Nov. 23, 2011 - .692 vs. Evansville), assisting on 29 of their 41 field goals. UIC was equally prolific at the defensive end, coming up with 17 steals, the most for a Flames' squad in nearly 11 years (also 17 steals on Dec. 30, 2014, vs. Judson).
  • UIC's 76-73 loss at Oregon State on Nov. 7 was the Flames' closest call against a power conference opponent since an 80-75 win at BIG EAST member DePaul on Dec. 14, 2016.
  • UIC's 13 steals at OSU were the most it had recorded against a Division I opponent since Nov. 16, 2016, when it also had 13 thefts in an 86-78 win over UTSA at Credit Union 1 Arena.
  • Ahmad Henderson's career-high seven steals at OSU were the most by a UIC player since Jan. 9, 2013, when Daniel Barnes had eight steals against Valparaiso.
  • On Nov. 13, UIC announced the signing of Dikembe Shaw, a 6-7 forward from Crown Point, Ind., to a National Letter of Intent to join the Flames starting in 2026-27. Shaw was an all-state selection and Indiana Junior All-Star pick last year while attending Crown Point High School, averaging 16.2 ppg., 6.7 rpg., 3.4 apg. and 1.3 spg., while helping the Bulldogs to a 24-2 record and a berth in the Indiana Class 4A semistate final. He also averaged 12.9 ppg. and 5.9 rpg. during the summer 2025 club season while competing for Indiana Elite 3SSB (3Stripes Select Basketball).


UP NEXT: BELMONT
UIC will open Missouri Valley Conference play next Saturday, Dec. 13, when it travels to Belmont for a 3 p.m. (CT) matchup with the Bruins (who are ranked No. 5 and receiving a first-place vote in this week's College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 Poll). Next weekend's game at Belmont will air live from the Curb Event Center in Nashville on ESPN+.
 

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