Women end home season with win over Oakland
Ruvanna Campbell collected her 20th double-double against Oakland. Photo: Steve Woltmann
The UIC women’s basketball team (16-11, 6-8 HL) concluded its regular season home schedule with a 64-54 victory over Oakland (11-17, 5-10 HL) Saturday afternoon.
UIC closes out the regular season with a road swing through Ohio starting Wednesday at second-place Wright State (21-7, 10-4 HL). The Flames remain in sixth place in the Horizon League after Detroit (11-16, 6-8 HL), who owns the tiebreaker over UIC, defeated Valparaiso, 78-57.
Saturday at the Pavilion, UIC limited Oakland to 29 percent shooting (22-of-74), including 18 percent from downtown (5-of-27). The Flames set a season high with nine blocks and only sent Oakland to the free throw line five times.
UIC has held 16 opponents under 40 percent shooting and the Flames are 11-0 when allowing less than 60 points. The Golden Grizzlies became the sixth UIC opponent to shoot under 30 percent from the field.
UIC dished out 19 assists, the second highest this season, and made 4-of-8 attempts from beyond the arc. Over the last two games, the Flames are shooting 56 percent (9-of-16) from downtown.
Ruvanna Campbell, who played all 40 minutes and finished 11-of-21 from the field, collected her 20th double-double with a game-high 26 points and 15 rebounds. She blocked six shots, her highest number since the 2014 WBI Championship game.
“Ruvanna has enjoyed a lot of success against Oakland in the past and today was no different,” said UIC head coach Regina Miller. “She set the tone for us offensively and opened the floor in the second half for our other shooters to make clean looks. Our bigs did an excellent job defensively on their bigs and that forced Oakland to settle for many contested jump shots.”
Caitlin Garant and Melita Emanuel-Carr scored nine points for the Flames. Garant blocked two shots and Emanuel-Carr dished out a career-high eight assists.
Imani Moore set a career high with 12 rebounds and added six points in her second consecutive start. After being honored during Senior Day, Gisselle Truiett had five points, four assists and a team-high three steals.
Oakland scored the first eight points of the contest to hold its largest lead of the game with 15:26 on the clock. Down 19-12, the Flames went on an 8-0 run capped by Moore’s layup with 6:36 remaining in the first half. Oakland scored four consecutive points before UIC closed out the half with a 7-0 run to take a 27-23 lead into halftime.
Up 41-35 in the second half, UIC went on an 8-2 run to take its largest lead of the game at 49-37 with 11:56 remaining. The Golden Grizzlies used a 10-0 run to narrow UIC’s lead to 49-47 at 7:41. However, the Flames responded with six consecutive points and Oakland never got closer than five points the rest of the contest. UIC hit five of its final six shots and Oakland missed its final six field goal attempts.
