Flames share the ball, enjoy an easy win

(2/16/03)

UIC point guard Martell Bailey leads the nation in assists with 8.4 per contest on the season, but he wasn’t alone in dishing out the ball against Indiana-Purdue-Ft. Wayne Saturday afternoon.

As a team, the Flames had 28 assists—three shy of a team record—in an 86-64 victory over IPFW at the UIC Pavilion.

Bailey (pictured) had nine assists, while senior Jonathan Schneiderman added seven. Armond Williams led the Flames (16-7) with 17 points and Cedrick Banks contributed 14 points and four assists of his own.

IPFW (6-20) actually led 14-9 before UIC went on a 21-4 spurt to open a 30-18 lead. Banks had seven points in the run.

Aaron Carr (13 points) and Schneiderman (12 points) rounded out the double-figure scorers for UIC, while DeAngelo Woodall led the Mastodons with 14 points.

Freshman guard Mike Smith played his first game in over a month and scored seven points in just six minutes. Smith had been recovering from a stress fracture in his leg.

THE SHERIFF IS IN: Senior Kyle Kickert earned the starting nod for the second straight game, putting in seven points and grabbing five rebounds against IPFW. Kickert (pictured) played a career-high 36 minutes in last Thursday’s loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, scoring nine points and grabbing nine rebounds.

The man Kickert replaced, Joe Scott, continues to struggle, scoring no points and grabbing just two rebounds, while committing eight fouls in 18 minutes of play in the last two games.

FLAMES ON CLTV: CLTV’s SportsPage did a report on the Flames Saturday night after their victory over IPFW. Reporter and anchor Mike Bloomberg interviewed Bailey, Williams, Banks, and coach Jimmy Collins.

While talking about possibly breaking the school’s career assists record, Bailey, who now stands in third place, said, “I got two more years. By the time I leave here, I’ll be number 1.”

Bailey, who sat out his freshman year as a partial qualifier, sounds like he is on track to graduate in four years and earn an extra year of eligibility, which is bad news for the rest of the Horizon League.

Bailey trails just Craig Lathen and Kenny Williams on the Flames’ career assist list.

UP NEXT: UIC returns to where it won last year’s Horizon League Tournament when the Flames take on Cleveland State at Goodman Arena Thursday at 6 p.m. The game will air on ESPN Radio 1000.