McGee spree leads Flames over All-Stars

(11/5/03)

Marcetteaus McGee walked out on the UIC Pavilion floor for his first action in an interscholastic game in 20 months.

The freshman point guard who starred at Farragut High School two years entered Wednesday night’s exhibition game with the Illinois All-Stars with 11:13 left in the first half and UIC trailing 19-17.

A spirited McGee nailed a three-pointer from the left wing to put the Flames ahead for good 40 seconds later. He led the Flames second unit in breaking open a tight game, scoring a team-high 11 points in the first half to put UIC up 44-31 at intermission.

McGee finished the game with 18 points on 5-of-7 from the field, including 3-of-5 from three-point range, and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line. He also contributed four assists in 21 minutes.

“Marcetteaus came in and played like a veteran,” UIC coach Jimmy Collins said. “We knew he was a tremendous talent. He needs to learn the offense a little bit better. He can improvise, but when the ball is passed two or three times, he kind of gets mixed up. You haven't seen the best of Marcetteaus yet.”

Cedrick Banks started slowly, but did finish with a team-high 24 points on 10-of-20 shooting for the Flames. He poured in 17 points in just over 10 minutes of the second half.

“Cedrick can score, score, score, and I didn’t even know he had 20-something points,” Collins said.

Banks also had a team-high seven rebounds and four steals in 21 minutes of action.

Seniors Aaron Carr and Armond Williams each scored nine points and junior Josip Petrusic added eight points on 3-of-3 from the field and 2-of-2 from the line.

Senior Martell Bailey passed out eight of the Flames’ 25 assists for the game.

Newcomer Justin Bowen (five points) didn’t do much on the scoresheet, but added four helpers and five rebounds.

Collins made it a priority to get center Joe Scott involved in the offense early. Scott scored six points in the first 2:21 of the game, including 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. He finished with seven points and a blocked shot in 17 minutes.

“Joe is showing good signs in practice,” Collins said. “He’s going to continue to get better.”

Mac Irvin led the Illinois All-Stars with 26 points and former Flame Cory Little added 20 points and six three-pointers.

The All-Stars pulled within 74-65 on Little’s three-point basket with 6:37 left, but UIC closed the game on a 23-4 burst.

The Flames out-rebounded the All-Stars 42-29 and forced 29 turnovers, but were a little sloppy with the ball themselves.

“We have a lot of guys that can play,” Collins said. “Obviously we’ve got to a little better handling the ball, because we had 16 turnovers—that’s a little bit too many for me. We ran the offense well, and we’ve only been practicing two-and-a-half weeks.”

FREEBIES: The Flames shot 72 percent (26-of-36) from the line. Even Scott got into the act, going 5-of-6 from the line, swishing the first five.

“Joe’s been a brick-mason for us,” joked Collins. “But he’s worked extremely hard on shooting free throws.”

Carr also went 4-of-4 from the line. The team’s percentage would have been even better if a combined 2-of-8 by Bowen and Richard Lesko were taken away.

SITTING OUT: Collins held out forward Elliott Poole for breaking an unspecified team rule. He was also practicing with a minor grain strain last week, but should return for Tuesday’s exhibition finale with St. Francis of Joliet.

Swingman Jovan Stefanov was recently hospitalized for two days with flu-like symptoms and did not dress. Forward Josh Williams did not dress either.

ROSTER STUFF: Whoosh! has learned that Collins will likely redshirt sophomore guard Mike Smith, freshman forward Kevin Bond and junior guard Rocky Collum this season. It also appears that sophomore forward Brandon Allen and sophomore guard Mike Britton have left the squad.