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Stoked Flames knock off Northwestern

CRITTLE, DEFENSE KEY 5TH STRAIGHT WIN

December 2, 2012

Whoosh! photo

UIC’s Josh Crittle (right) wins the opening tip against Northwestern’s Jared Swopshire.

EVANSTON—UIC is finding this winning thing contagious.

After not winning back-to-back to games over the last two seasons, the Flames are stoked and they’re raging.

Senior center Josh Crittle was in the middle of another great effort for UIC, which, despite shooting just 30.9 percent, chalked up its fifth consecutive win — a 50-44 victory over Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Crittle, the 6-foot-9 inside force who transferred home from Central Florida in August, scored 13 points, corralled nine rebounds and racked up team highs with four assists and four steals to lead a dominant team defensive effort.

This marks the third straight contest the Flames (6-1) have held an opponent in the 40s. UIC limited the Wildcats (6-2) to 34.9 percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers.

“They’ve really bought into what we’re trying to sell,” UIC coach Howard Moore said. “These guys went through a lot of things and haven’t had the success we’ve been looking for. ... Now they’re starting to reap the benefits of the hard work in the offseason and determination to turn things around.”

Moore is now 2-0 against Big Ten teams after some late heroics gave the Flames a 57-54 victory over Illinois at the United Center on Dec. 18, 2010.

“It's a huge win,” said senior guard Barnes, who had 10 points, six rebounds and two steals. “We beat [Illinois] two years ago and we’re 2-0 against the Big Ten. It just shows that the hard work we put in during the offseason and coming up to this game is paying off, but we’re not satisfied.”

Evoking memories of UIC’s last win over a Big Ten team, Crittle channeled Darrin Williams by scoring on a tiebreaking putback to give the Flames a 46-44 lead with 54.9 seconds left.

Northwestern’s Alex Olah, a 7-foot freshman center, missed a close-in shot on the ensuing possession and Barnes grabbing the rebound. The Wildcats were forced to foul and Gary Talton and Hayden Humes hit a pair of free throws in the final half-minute to cement the victory.

Crittle was a factor all over the place, but the number that stood out the most was four assists.

“Josh is a very good passer as a post player and he reads defenses pretty well and he reads cutters,” Moore said. “Once they tried to take away Josh, we were able to exploit other things.”

Crittle simply said hard work and practice helped him perfect his craft.

“All my life I’ve worked on my all-around game, going to the playground and working in practice,” Crittle said. “Seeing double teams, I had to become a passer or I was going to be turnover-prone.”

Whoosh! photo

UIC’s Hayden Humes handles the ball with Northwestern swingman Jared Swopshire defending in the first half.

Humes and Talton each finished with eight points for the Flames, and sophomore forward Marc Brown contributed seven points while keeping Wildcats senior star Drew Crawford in check.

Crawford finished with a game-high 18 points on 6-for-14 shooting while Reggie Hearn added 10 points and nine rebounds for Northwestern.

The game was a seesaw affair throughout with neither holding more than a five-point lead until the final seconds.

Barnes hit a 3-pointer and a driving layup and Humes scored on a layup to help UIC open a 15-10 lead. The Wildcats clawed back to take a 20-19 advantage on a 3-pointer by Kale Abrahamson with 5:26 left in the first half.

The Wildcats missed a pair of front of ends of 1-and-1 opportunities in the final 2:17 of the half, but still held a 26-25 advantage at halftime.

Northwestern grabbed its largest lead of the contest when Olah scored on a post move for a 32-27 advantage with 16:25 remaining. Moore called a quick timeout and the Flames quickly right themselves.

Barnes nailed a 3-pointer, then Crittle converted an old fashioned three-point play to give UIC the lead back at 33-32.

Sophomore point guard Dave Sobolewski scored off a cut to the basket to give the Wildcats the lead back. However, Northwestern kept shooting itself in the foot with missed free throws.

In addition to their offensive futility and carelessness with the basketball, the Wildcats missed half of their 20 free-throw attempts, another factor in the Flames’ victory.

“Our shots weren’t falling and whenever you have turnovers in the teens, it’s not a good night,” Sobolewski said. “We let up crucial offensive rebounds at the end and missed free throws.”

Joey Miller nailed a 15-foot jumper and Brown converted a three-point play to put the Flames up 38-35 with 8:11 left.

The Wildcats battled back against behind their senior star Drew Crawford, who scored five straight points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 4:18 to play for a 42-40 edge.

Northwestern had a chance to extend the lead, but Crittle poked the ball away for a steal and Talton drove coast-to-coast for a game-tying layup.

Crittle also came up big on UIC’s next possession, passing out of a double team in the post and finding Brown for a beautiful cutting layup for a 44-42 Flames lead with 2:55 remaining.

“He’s been passing the ball well all year for them,” Carmody said of Crittle. “That really makes a difference. He made that made nice pass and they caught us for a layup. He’s smart player and he’s a veteran.”

Hearn hit two free throws to tie the game at 44-44, setting up more heroics from Crittle.

The Flames are just two victories away from matching their total from last season, which was an 8-22 disappointment in Moore’s second season as head coach.

“Going into this season, no one thought UIC would do anything, and we took notice of that,” Moore said. “But at the same time we relish in the fact that we know that we worked our tails off and the results are going to come.”

FLAMES FLICKERS: The Flames defeated the Wildcats for the fourth straight time with three of the wins coming at Welsh-Ryan Arena. UIC last played NU in the 2005-06 season when the Flames won 71-62 behind Justin Bowen’s double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds. … It was third time that Crittle had at least three assists in a game this season. He had five assists in Tuesday’s 58-46 win over Northern Illinois. … The Flames committed just 10 turnovers, including only two in the first half. UIC’s season high is just 13 over the first seven games. … UIC allowed fewer than 50 points for third consecutive game for just the second time in history of the program. They did it back in 1947-48 when they held Aurora, Illinois Tech and Illinois-Galesburg to 43, 44 and 32 points, respectively.

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