March 6, 2008

Contact: Greg Murphy

CHICAGO, Ill. - Cleveland State put together a furious rally midway through the second half, but could not overcome an 18-point halftime deficit as the Vikings fell to UIC, 93-80, in Horizon League action on Thursday night at the UIC Pavillion.

CSU, which was playing without both Stephaine Crosley and Natalie Miller who were injured, slipped to 15-13 overall and 9-8 in the Horizon League, while the Flames improved to 10-18 overall and 6-11 in conference play.

With one game remaining in the regular season, the Vikings are tied for fourth place with Butler and Valparaiso, who will play each other on Saturday afternoon. The trio is one-game behind third place Milwaukee (10-7).

We started out a little slow and they hit some shots in the first half," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "We came back with a lot of energy in the second half and were able to get the lead to eight points, but just ran out of time. We need to come with that same energy we displayed in the second half on Saturday."

Kailey Klein led the Vikings with 28 points and five rebounds, while setting a school-record and tying another in the process. Klein hit a CSU single-game record 17 free throws and tied the school-record with 21 free throw attempts. The old record for free throws made in a game was held by Klein, who did it earlier this season, and Deb Taylor, who sank 15 against Valparaiso on Jan. 11, 1990.

Klein's 21 free throw attempts tie Lanette Taylor's record set on Jan. 4, 1992 versus St. Bonaventure.

Brittany Korth added a career-high tying 18 points, while Angel Roque posted 13 points and four assists. Dominique Butler was the fourth Viking in double-figures with 11 and added seven rebounds.

UIC received 19 points from Taylor Manley and 16 points and nine rebounds from Meghan Hutchens.

CSU started quickly, using a layup from Brittany Korth and a three-pointer by Angel Roque to claim a 5-0 lead less than one minute into the game.

However, the Flames came right back to take a 9-8 lead on a pair of free throws by Taylor Manley with 14:50 to play in the half and continued a torrid shooting pace to extend the halftime lead to 18 points (47-29).

UIC hit .459 (17-37) from the field overall in the first half, including 8-of-12 (.667) from three-point to maintain a double-digit lead for a majority of the half. Manley (3-3) and Jessie Miller (4-4) combined to make all seven of their three-point attempts in the half.

In contrast, the Vikings could manage just .320 (8-25) shooting in the first half and tried to stay close by hitting 10-of-13 (.769) from the free throw line.

The Flames extended the lead to as many as 26 points (75-49) with 8:31 to play, but the Vikings began a full court press to climb back into the contest, using a 25-7 run to slice the lead to just eight points (82-74) with 2:56 to play.

However, the would be as close as the Vikings would get as UIC hit 9-of-10 free throws down the stretch to seal the game.

CSU shot .371 (23-62) from the field and hit 9-of-24 (.375) from three-point. The Vikings also converted 25-of-30 (.833) free throws to raise their season percentage to .800.

UIC finished the game shooting .524 (33-63) from the field, including 9-of-14 (.643) from three-point. The Flames also held a 43-31 rebounding advantage and outscored the CSU bench, 40-7.

The Vikings will conclude the regular season with a 2:00 p.m. CST contest at Loyola on Saturday (March 8) afternoon.