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Painful losses

With Matthews, Snider out, Flames fall to Valpo again

By Mike Pankow

January 4, 2016

Mike Pankow/Whoosh!

UIC freshman guard Dominique Matthews will miss the rest of the season with a fractured thumb.

UIC got smoked in its Horizon League opener at Valparaiso on Saturday.

But the worst news came before the game when Flames coach Steve McClain revealed that two pivotal players will miss significant playing time.

Freshman guard Dominique Matthews, the team’s second-leading scorer, will miss the rest of the season with a fractured thumb. Senior guard Gabe Snider, who recently emerged as a deep-shooting threat off the bench, could miss up to three to four weeks with a stress fracture in his foot.

Matthews appeared to be in good spirits when he tweeted, “I love basketball so much, can’t wait to get back next year!” He averaged 9.7 points over nine games, eight starts.

The bad news continued onto the court for UIC, which lost for the 14th straight time to their league rivals. The Flames shot 30.5 percent from the field and had no player reach double figures in a 75-47 loss to the Crusaders, the Horizon League preseason favorites, at the Athletics-Recreation Center in Valparaiso.

The injuries opened up an opportunity for some fresh faces to step up, but nobody stood out as UIC dropped to 2-10 in McClain’s first season on the bench.

Redshirt sophomore Lance Whitaker scored eight points to lead the Flames, who haven’t defeated Valpo since 2009. Freshman forward Dikembe Dixson, who poured in a career-high 28 points against Northern Illinois in his previous outing, was held to just seven points on 2-for-10 shooting. Tai Odiase and Jake Wiegand each added seven points.

Keith Carter scored 15 points and Shane Hammink added 13 points to lead four players in double figures for the Crusaders (11-3, 1-0), who shot 46.3 percent from the field after a slow start. Team leader Alec Peters added 12 points and Darien Walker chipped in 11 points. Post force Vashil Fernandez added six points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots.

The game was close for the first seven minutes as UIC trailed just 12-8 after Najeal Young’s 16-foot jumper. But Valpo finally found its groove behind Walker and Hammink, who combined for 16 points during 23-6 run that blew the game wide open.

By time Walker drilled a 3-pointer with 1:30 left in the first half, the Crusaders took a 35-14 lead. The Flames used a 6-2 spurt to end the half to pull to within 37-20 at the break.

UIC hoped to make the final score look respectable, but the Crusaders used a 10-0 run to take a 27-point lead with 4:12 left in the contest.

The Flames continue their conference-opening three-game trip with a visit to Detroit on Friday in search of some better news.

FLAMES FLICKERS: In a positive note on the injury front, Young returned after missing two games because of a concussion. He had six points on 3-for-10 shooting to go with six rebounds in 24 minutes. … All 11 healthy Flames played against the Crusaders and everybody played double-figure minutes except for freshman forward Hassan Thomas. … UIC’s last win against Valpo came on Feb. 15, 2009 when Robo Kreps and Josh Mayo combined for 50 points in the Flames’ 83-76 win. The Flames have lost eight straight to Valpo at the ARC, but did beat Oakland in the second round of the Horizon League tournament at Valpo last season.

In other recent news:
NIU 70, UIC 65: History lesson (12/31/15)
Dixson adds to collection (12/28/15)
UIC 91, Purdue-Calumet 74: Snider the savior (12/23/15)
Loyola 64, UIC 47: Flames fighting through process (12/20/15)
Illinois State 72, UIC 60: Pressure cooks up trouble (12/17/15)
Dixson collects more hardware (12/15/15)
Illinois 83, UIC 79: Freshmen flourish in tough loss (12/14/15)
UCF 88, UIC 58: Formula for trouble (12/7/15)
DePaul 82, UIC 55: Crosstown crushing (12/3/15)