Humes ignites streaking Flames

UIC WINS 4TH STRAIGHT, CONQUERS ROAD TEST

November 28, 2012

Whoosh! photo Junior forward Hayden Humes scored 18 points while hitting 7-for-8 from the field against NIU on Tuesday night.

DeKALB—Hayden Humes and the UIC Flames are growing up in front of our eyes.

Humes rediscovered his shooting touch as he scored 18 points in UIC’s 58-46 victory at Northern Illinois on Tuesday night, earning the Flames their first four-game winning streak in nearly four years.

The junior forward was 7-for-8 from the field, hitting 2 of his 3 tries from 3-point range and sinking both of his free-throw attempts for the Flames (5-1), who won just their third true road game since Howard Moore took over as coach before the 2010-11 season.

“Any road win is tremendous,” Moore said. “If you want to win on the road, you’ve got to have good ball security, good defense and make free throws when they count and our guys did a good job of that down the stretch.”

Humes had plenty of help from his friends too. Senior guard Daniel Barnes tallied 11 points and eight rebounds while senior center Josh Crittle contributed 10 points, six rebounds and five assists and senior point guard Gary Talton added 10 points, five assists and three steals.

Humes, who was hesitant at times in his first season with the Flames in 2011-12, feels more confident about his game.

“I’m just playing more into my role, buying into our system,” Humes said. “I’m just playing within the game and trying to not to force anything. I think just having a year of experience with our coaching staff and playing with Gary, Danny and Marc [Brown] for a year, so we’re more familiar with each other.”

The Flames’ defense continued to be masterful, allowing the Huskies to shoot just 32.7 percent from the field for the game.

After a 1-for-11 shooting effort against Southeast Missouri, Humes scored five points during an 8-0 run that gave the Flames a 13-5 lead with 12:30 left in the first half.

Mike Davis hit a pair of baskets to cut the score to 13-9, but the Flames opened a double-digit advantage with a run of seven unanswered points, which including an inside basket by Will Simonton, a 3-pointer by Barnes and a 12-foot baseline jumper by Josh Crittle.

When NIU threatened late in the first half, Talton drilled a 3-pointer and Simonton hit another layup to extend UIC’s lead back to 10. Darrell Bowie hit a fall-away jumper at the first-half buzzer to slice the Huskies’ deficit to 27-19.

UIC’s defense was sharp again in the opening stanza, holding NIU to 30.8 shooting.

Humes scored the first four points of a 6-0 spurt to start the second half as the Flames took their largest lead of the game at 33-19 with 17:12 remaining in the game.

“UIC got off to a quick start in both halves so we were always playing from behind,” NIU coach Mark Montgomery said. “I thought coming in we had to limit their big four and those four all scored in double figures. I thought that our guys played hard but we need to get the ball to go in the basket to have a little more confidence. Unfortunately we only shot 32 percent and UIC made some plays.”

NIU put together a 14-5 run to close the gap to 38-33 on Kevin Gray’s layup with 11:10 to play, but Humes responded with a 3-pointer less than a minute later to quell the threat.

Talton hit two free throws and 17-foot jumper to extend the Flames’ lead to 48-35 with 6:48 left.

“I’m really proud of the response that my team had,” Moore said. “Every surge [NIU] made, every run that they had, we were able to bounce back and hold our composure, make a big shot or knock down free throws. For the most part, I thought we did a job of answering their runs and staying composed and finishing up the game the way we should.”

The Huskies got to within seven on two free throws by Akeem Springs with 3:27 left, but Crittle made 5 of 6 free throws in the final 3 minutes and Humes scored on a nifty layup to slam the door.

UIC improved to 5-1 for the first time since the 2003-04 season, and for a team which won just eight games all of last season, it’s a huge mental boost.

“It gives us confidence and something to build on,” Humes said. “In the end, it really doesn’t mean anything, our focus is the next game.”

And that game is against Northwestern in Evanston on Saturday, which will be a true test of how far the Flames have come.

FLAMES FLICKERS: The Flames’ four-game winning streak is their longest since a five-game run toward the end of the 2008-09 season, the second-to-last under coach Jimmy Collins. … It was UIC’s second straight win over the Huskies, following a 62-55 win at the Pavilion last season. … The Flames remain very efficient with the basketball, committing just 11 turnovers while forcing 15 from NIU. … UIC racked up nine steals, led by Talton’s three. Barnes and Marc Brown each recorded a pair. … Freshman forward Sam Mader’s 15 points led NIU. … The Flames got just four points from their bench, all by sophomore backup center Will Simonton.