IUPUI’s Poor Free Throw Shooting Dooms Them at UIC

By: Ethan Hennessy

Chicago Illinois

IUPUI went only 13-27 from the free throw line in Saturday’s game at UIC and fell to the host Flames 77-72 inside Credit Union 1 Arena in downtown Chicago on Saturday. UIC jumped out to a hot start in the Windy City shooting the lights out early, and building their lead all the way up to 14 at the 11:54 mark. The Jaguars battled back throughout the rest of the half cutting the UIC lead to 35-30 at halftime. UIC coach Steve McClain said “I though early we were defending, and because of the defending we getting out and running in transition, and because of that we were getting easy shots. But then I felt like we let up on the defensive end, and because of that we were always playing set offense, and not getting any flow.”

UIC’s Michael Diggins passes to teammate Tarkus Ferguson.

IUPUI only played seven players, and four of them accounted for 68 of the team’s 72 points. The jaguars were led by Marcus Burk who had a game high 28 points and six assists. Weatherford, Minnett and Goss has 15, 15, and ten respectively. Goss also brought down an astonishing 18 rebounds. McClain praised IUPUI saying “They’ve got two a talented of guards as anybody in this conference, so I knew it would be a battle”. He was not the only player doing heavy work on the glass as UIC’s Jordan Blount pulled down 14 rebounds of his own.

IUPUI coach Byron Rimm II talks to his team during a timeout in downtown Chicago.

The teams took turns making runs in the second half, but IUPUI was never able to take the lead. The game saw each team pick up a technical foul, and the game had 42 fouls in total. In the end UIC weathered the IUPUI runs, and walked out the game with a 77-72 win.