UIC goes 2-0 in exhibition play; Bailey barely misses triple-double

(11/15/02)

A few Flames appeared in midseason form in Thursday night’s exhibition finale against International Select.

Junior point guard Martell Bailey, who sat last week’s exhibition with the Illinois All-Stars, returned with a motivated stat line of 10 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds as the Flames defeated International Select 81-61 at the UIC Pavilion.

Four other Flames tallied double figures, including Jontahan Schneiderman (14 points) Armond Williams (14), Richard Lesko (12), and Jabari Harris (11). Schneiderman finished with four three-pointers.

UIC coach Jimmy Collins was particularly impressed with Lesko, a junior college transfer out of Danville Community College. Lesko, who also had 10 rebounds, showed some aggressiveness in the paint, as well as, a nice mid-range jump shot.

“I think Richard Lesko showed me that he could step up to the plate,” Collins said. “He showed me tonight that he was a gamer. He runs the offense; he doesn’t try to play outside of himself.”

Brian Taylor, who also played for the Illinois All-Stars last week, led International Select with 23 points, while ex-Flame Joel Bullock pitched in 22 points.

UIC jumped out to an 8-0 lead on the strength of a Schneiderman three-pointer and four points from Harris. The Flames led by as many as 17 in the first half before settling for a 43-31 halftime advantage.

Select pulled within 60-52 with 7:56 left, but the Flames put the game away with a 16-5 run.

Collins hopes that the next week of practice before next Friday’s opener with Evansville helps focus the team.

“It’s evident that some guys are thinking about themselves than the well-being of the team,” Collins said. “We need to work on defensive transition. [International Select] had too many situations where they had 1-on-1, where our guys were slow coming back. We have good players and they will make the adjustments.”

NOTES

BANKS NEWS: Junior Cedrick Banks, UIC’s best player, missed his second straight game. Apparently there is an academic issue with Banks that Collins hopes is cleared up in the coming days.

“We’re still waiting on some things from Cedrick,” said Collins, choosing not to elaborate on the issue. “We certainly could have used him out there tonight.”

Collins said he hopes that it won’t cause Banks, a preseason Horizon League first-teamer, to miss any regular-season action.

“He’s still on the bench; he wants to coach now,” Collins joked. “We’re anxious to get him back out there.”

FAMILIAR FACES: Three former Flames and a former Loyola Rambler played for International Select. Besides Bullock, Jordan Kardos and Anton Collins started for Select, while former Rambler Jonathan Freeman came off the bench.

Kardos scored 10 points, but fouled out of the game with 4:07 left and earned a technical foul for arguing with an official after his fifth foul. Schneiderman and Aaron Carr combined to make all four free throws to help put the game out of reach.

Collins and Freeman did not score in 17 and 15 minutes, respectively.

TWO DEBUT: Redshirt freshman forward Josh Williams and true freshman swingman Jovan Stefanov made their UIC debuts Thursday. Williams had a point and two rebounds in three minutes and Stefanov, who some believed may redshirt this season, went scoreless, but had two steals in five minutes.

SCOTT HELD OUT: Collins benched junior Joe Scott for Thursday’s exhibition, because the 6-foot 9-inch center suffered a mild concussion in last week’s game. He was “still having headaches,” according to Collins.