Women’s basketball falls on road, wins at home

Junior Megan Wallace recorded a career high with 12 points Friday. Photo: Steve Woltmann

The women’s basketball team (2-7) suffered a non-conference road loss against Bradley, 66-52, Tuesday night at the Renaissance Coliseum.

Redshirt junior Katie Hannemann tied a career-high 17 points and picked up her second double-double of the season with 10 rebounds.

The Flames trailed by eight points at halftime and stayed within striking distance through the early portion of second period.  Bradley forced a 7-1 offensive run, extending its lead to 14 points with 12:25 left to play and never let the lead slip below 11 for the rest of the game.

Both squads committed 22 turnovers and shot a dismal 34 percent from the field.  The Flames went 2-of-19 (10.5 percent) from three-point range and hit just 8-of-20 from the free throw line.

“We gave up an early lead and played from behind the whole game,” said head coach Regina Miller.  “When that happens you expend a lot of energy just trying to come back.  We knew Bradley was going to its fast break early and we let it happen anyway.”

Bradley used a smothering defense to force five UIC turnovers in the early minutes and held a 15-4 lead by the 15:42 mark.  The Flames pulled to within seven points on three different occasions over the next five minutes, feeding Hannemann down low and establishing a post presence.  Twelve of the Flames’ first 14 points came in the paint, but they gave up 10 fast break points in the first 12 minutes.

Bradley amassed a 30-17 lead with 3:50 remaining in the first half as the Flames suffered nearly a five minute scoring draught.  UIC kept battling and cut the Braves’ advantage down to 32-24 by halftime, scoring six of the final eight points of the first stanza.

Hannemann paced all scorers at the break with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, while Bradley had three players with six points apiece.

Both teams struggled from the field in the first period with the Flames going 0-for-7 from behind the arc as Bradley hit just 37.1 percent of its shots.  The Flames did force 12 BU turnovers in the first 20 minutes, producing 14 points of those miscues.

Poor shooting and turnovers continued for both teams to start the second half, but Bradley slowly grew its lead out to 45-31 by the 12:45 mark.

With 6:28 left to play, BU’s Katie Yohn drilled a three from the left baseline that sparked a 7-0 Braves’ spurt, giving Bradley a comfortable 56-38 edge.  The Flames seemed to have regained the momentum with two buckets in the next 17 seconds, cutting the deficit down to 14.

The Braves quickly extinguished the Flames rally, scoring eight of the next nine points, and reached its first 20-point lead with 3:29 remaining.  The Flames tallied eight points in the final 1:38, but it wasn’t enough as they dropped the road contest, 66-52.

UIC returns to the court Saturday at home against in-state rival Northern Illinois with tip scheduled for 1 p.m. CT.

Setting records

The women’s basketball team set a single-game program record Friday with 30 assists in a 90-67 victory against Roosevelt at the UIC Pavilion.

The Flames (2-6) had five players in double figures, led by senior Taylor Foulks with 15 points and junior Megan Wallace with 12. Redshirt junior Katie Hannemann and freshman Terri Bender added 11 points and junior Rachel Story scored 10.

Wallace and Bender as well as sophomore Gisselle Truiett (7) and freshman Imani Moore (6) recorded career highs.

The Flames host Northern Illinois at 1 p.m. Saturday and Western Michigan at 8 p.m. Dec. 28 at the UIC Pavilion.

Friday’s 90-point effort was the largest single-game performance for UIC since 2008.

“It was a great team effort,” head coach Regina Miller said. “We fed each other the ball and we took shots that we practiced. We managed possessions better tonight than we have in the past and rebounded as well as we have all year.”

The Flames out-rebounded the Lakers, 57-32. Bender and Wallace set career highs in rebounds with eight and seven, respectively. Story paced the team assists with eight. Hannemann and Bender added six each.

The Flames controlled much of the first half with a balanced offensive attack and hot shooting. UIC was 20-of-39 (51.3 percent) from the floor in the first period, while the Lakers shot less than 30 percent. The Flames closed out the final four minutes of the half with an 18-6 run to lead 52-33 at the break.

The second half was a back-and-forth affair, as Roosevelt never gave up fighting and the Flames used every player on their bench.

“We want to build off all the positives from this game,” Miller said.