Dec. 31, 2010
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
CHICAGO, Ill. - UIC raced out to an 11 point halftime lead and held off a furious second half rally by Cleveland State to claim a 65-59 victory over the Vikings in the Horizon League opener for both teams on Friday in a New Year's Eve matinee.
The loss drops the Vikings to 7-5 overall (0-1 HL), while the Flames evened their record at .500 at 6-6 (1-0) in the Horizon League and also snapped a six game losing streak to the Vikings.
Shawnita Garland led the Vikings with 17 points, while Shalonda Winton added 12 points and eight rebounds. Janelle Adams finished with 12 points and Takima Keane chipped in 10.
But the story of the afternoon was UIC's Taylor Foulks, who scored a game-high 24 points, hitting 8-of-10 from three point. She entered the game shooting just 28-percent (19-68) from beyond the arc.
Briana Hinkle added 17 points and nine assists for UIC.
"We got behind in the first half and it wound up being too big of a hole to dig ourselves out of," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "I was happy with the way we were able to battle back in the second half and cut the deficit down, but we need to find a way to come out and play with a high level of intensity for 40 minutes."
UIC raced out to a 34-23 halftime lead behind 12 points apiece from Foulks and Hinkle. The duo combined to hit 10-of-14 shots from the field, including a 4-for-5 effort from three point by Foulks, as the Flames shot .500 (14-28) from the floor in the opening stanza.
In contrast, the Vikings managed just .290 (9-31) shooting from the floor and hit just 2-of-13 (.154) from three point.
"I thought we had some good, open looks at the basket, but we just didn't knock them down," Peterson Abiad said. "And they were able to knock shots down. That was the difference."
UIC became the first team to shoot 50-percent or better against the Vikings this year, hitting exactly 50-percent (25-50). And it was the duo of Foulks and Hinkle who did a majority of the damage, combining to hit 16-of-25 from the floor.
Ironically, Foulks missed both of her free throw attempts.
UIC scored the first six points of the game to take a 6-0 lead, but the Vikings rallied back to within 11-8 when Winton split a pair of free throws with just under 16 minutes to play. The lead was still four points (18-14) with 11 minutes to go in the half, but the Flames used a 12-2 run over the next six minutes to take a 30-16 advantage on a Foulks three pointer that she banked in from the right wing.
The lead swelled to as high as 16 with 53 seconds left in the half on a pair of free throws by Kristin Petrinec, but Winton answered with a three pointer on the other end and two free throws by Blue helped the Vikings slash their deficit to 11 points at the half.
A layup by Cree Nix pushed the UIC advantage back to 13 points to open the second half (36-23), but that's when the Vikings started to get things going, using a 14-6 run to pull within five points (42-37) on a Keane three pointer with 12 minutes to go.
But as she did all afternoon long, Foulks answered on the other end with back-to-back three pointers as the UIC lead swelled back to 11 points (48-37) with 10:53 left.
Winton answered with a layup on the other end and after a defensive stop, Keane nailed another three pointer to bring the deficit back to six points (48-42) with 10 minutes left. After the teams traded baskets, UIC's Nix hit a pair of free throws and Foulks drilled yet another three pointer as the Flames lead grew back to double digits (55-44) with seven minutes left.
The lead was still 11 with 3:51 to play (64-53) and the Vikings scored six straight points and used several defensive stops to get back within six points (64-59) with 59 seconds left. CSU managed a steal on the defensive end, but was unable to convert in transition, forcing the Vikings to foul.
Hinkle hit the front end of the one and one, but missed the second. However, UIC was able to secure the rebound and run out the clock.
CSU's offense picked up in the second half as the Vikings shot .538 (14-26) from the field in the final stanza, including 3-of-6 from three point.
"We started to knock down some shots in the second half and that allowed us to climb back into the game," Peterson Abiad said. "I thought we had several opportunities to get the lead back under six points, but never got that key defensive stop or hit a key shot to cut into the lead even more."
UIC held a 41-26 advantage on the boards, while CSU tied a season low with 14 turnovers.
The Vikings conclude their two game trip through Chicago with a 1:00 p.m. CST (2:00 p.m. in Cleveland) contest at Loyola on Sunday (Jan. 2).
