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Flames come up a little short

DePAUL HOLDS ON FOR WIN

November 23, 2008

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UIC’s Josh Mayo scored 23 points, but narrowly missed a potential game-winning three-pointer in the final seconds.

The iron was unkind to Josh Mayo in the final seconds of UIC’s 67-63 loss to DePaul on Saturday.

In fact, you could say that the lid was on the basket for the Flames for most of the night at the Pavilion as UIC shot just 33 percent in a game that could have stolen at the end.

Down by two points, Mayo had a good look at a stepback three-pointer with eight seconds to play, but it hit the front rim and rolled off.

“It was on line,” said Mayo, who scored a game-high 23 points and made three three-pointers. “It just hit off the front iron. That’s just the way it goes.”

A make could have completed a comeback from a 13-point deficit and given UIC its second straight victory over the Blue Demons.

Instead, it was close, but no cigar.

Junior guard Will Walker led DePaul (2-0) with 17 points and sophomore forward Mac Koshwal was an anchor in the paint, contributing 14 points and 15 rebounds.

It appeared that the Blue Demons were on their way to a laugher when they went on a 12-0 run midway through the second half. Walker scored the final six points of the spurt, which put DePaul ahead 57-44 with 8:52 left.

But the Blue Demons started to get conservative and the Flames (1-2) began to chip away.

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Will Walker was one of the key players for DePaul, scoring six of his 17 points during a second-half run.

“Once we made that good run in the second half, I thought we were going to pull away,” Walker said. “We kind of calmed down on defense and we settled for some bad shots on offense, so they came back on us.”

Down 59-48, Mayo ignited the Flames with a three-pointer. Scott VanderMeer dunked off a nice spin move. Then Mayo knocked home a couple of free throws.

After a DePaul miss, Robo Kreps broke away from the pack and scored on a layup to cut UIC’s deficit to two.

After another defensive stop, Mayo capped the 11-0 surge with a floater to tie the game at 59-59 with 2:26 left, forcing Blue Demons coach Jerry Wainwright to call a full timeout.

“Down that stretch, the light bulb went on,” UIC coach Jimmy Collins said. “When you’ve got a player of Josh’s magnitude, you want him to be the one that takes the shots.”

On the first possession after the timeout, freshman Jeremiah Kelly, who played at Boys To Men Academy in Chicago, drilled a long three-pointer to give DePaul the lead back at 62-59 with 2:04 remaining.

“We weren’t expecting him to take it, but he hit it,” Mayo said of the freshman’s clutch play. “It was a big-time shot.”

Kreps hit a short jumper to pull the Flames back within, but DePaul’s Dar Tucker (12 points) came back with a three of his own for a four-point lead with 1:25 to go.

“It wasn’t Dar’s best game, but he wasn’t afraid to make a play,” Wainwright said. “He stepped up and hit a big three.”

UIC didn’t fold, pulling with 65-63 on two free throws by Tori Boyd with 31.4 seconds to play.

Needing to foul, the Flames sent Walker to the free-throw line for a 1-and-1. Walker missed the front end, enabling the Flames to set up a final shot for Mayo and chance to win the game.

“I was certainly going for the three,” Collins said. “I wanted the three, I thought it was a pretty good shot. I’ve seen [Mayo] make those everyday.”

After a Flames timeout, Mayo dribbled around the top of the circle and with Kelly guarding him, he stepped back and launched the shot that tickled the rim and fell off.

When asked what he was thinking when Mayo took the last-second shot, Wainwright said: “Every shot he takes looks good to me. He’s got such good confidence.”

Koshwal hit two free throws with 4.1 seconds left to seal the victory.

DePaul led most of the first half, maintaining a slight advantage with their athleticism and physical play. The Blue Demons led by as many as six points before UIC came back.

VanderMeer scored on a layup to give UIC a 24-23 lead with 4:27 before halftime. Kreps extended the Flames’ lead to 31-26 with a three-pointer with 1:30 to go.

Another freshman helped close out the opening period on a high note for the Blue Demons. Six-foot-nine rookie Devin Hill hit consecutive three-pointers to give DePaul a 34-33 advantage at intermission.

“I thought our freshmen got a crash course in pressure,” Wainwright said. “Devin Hill’s threes at the end of the first half was a transfusion of energy and confidence for us. What a difference those two shots made.”

The Blue Demons never trailed after that.

Besides Mayo’s game-high 23 points, VanderMeer added 12 points, five rebounds and five blocked shots. Kreps and Boyd contributed nine points apiece.

The Flames had plenty of good looks, but missed a lot of close-in shots and some open threes.

“We missed too many layups, especially me,” VanderMeer said. “I was 5-for-14, that’s not acceptable by any standards.”

Collins was quick to defend his 7-footer.

“I’m refusing to let any one guy to take blame for this loss,” Collins said. “Everybody put in effort, and I don’t want Scott to beat himself up.”

DePaul frustrated the Flames on the boards too, outrebounding them 49-37, including 22-17 on the offensive end.

“They outrebounded us,” VanderMeer said. “It was the big guys’ fault. We weren’t doing our job of boxing out.”

“I thought we really made an effort to keep [Koshwal] off the boards, but we couldn’t do anything with him,” Collins said. “He was a beast. They kept getting offensive rebounds, two and three shots after a miss.”

Collins expected a dogfight and he got one.

“It was the kind of game I was hoping we would have, but the result was what I really wanted,” Collins said. “It was a battle, and I was anticipating that. I think both teams got after each other. It was still a good game for our students and for the city.”

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DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright expressed interest in continuing the series with UIC beyond next season.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR: Wainwright confirmed that the teams will meet one more time next season as part of the current contract between UIC and DePaul. The game will be at Allstate Arena.

“We’re trying to do some things with state schools,” Wainwright said. “If this is a good college basketball city, I think everybody in the city needs to play.”

Wainwright said he and DePaul athletic director Jean Lenti-Ponsetto are open to exploring options for a future slate of games with UIC.

“I like Jimmy. He’s got a good program. As long as Jimmy’s the coach, we’re going to continue to work together and put something together that’s good for the fans.”

Collins knew the atmosphere for this game was big.

“I heard talk that this was just another game, but that’s impossible," Collins said. “Look at all the people [in the interview room]."

The players also felt energized.

“It’s fun to play these rivalry games, because it has that type of buzz that we’re going to see in the Big East,” said Walker, a Lockport High School graduate.

Wainwright even admitted he went to school at UIC for a year.

“It probably devalues your degree,” Wainwright joked.

STRANGE OCCURRENCE: UIC freshman forward Jelani Poston committed a somewhat odd turnover in the second half. After a Walker basket put DePaul up by 10 points with 8:58 left, Collins called for a timeout.

However, the officials ruled that Poston had inbounded the ball right back to Walker before the whistle sounded, so they gave the ball to DePaul. Moments later, Walker buried a three-pointer. Then Collins got his timeout with the Flames down 13.

FLAMES FLICKERS: Even though VanderMeer had a bit of a rough night shooting, he did have two dunks and a nice finish of a right-handed hook shot. VanderMeer said during the off-season that he was working on finishing shots with his off hand. …

The official attendance with 5,912 with the lower bowl of the Pavilion pretty much full with some fans seated in the upper deck. …

Poston had a nice dunk off a no-look pass from Spencer Stewart as the Flames were making a run late in the first half. …

UIC shot just 4-for-22 from three-point range (18 percent). “That was a big part of what we wanted to do,” Wainwright said. “Our defense held us in there.” …

On the other hand, the Flames shot 17-for-18 (94 percent) from the free-throw line. Mayo hit all four of his freebies and hasn’t missed in 18 attempts this season. …

It was a bit of a sloppy affair as DePaul committed 24 turnovers, including seven by Koshwal, while UIC made 16. …

Mayo had a career-best six steals, surpassing his old mark of four, which he did on three previous occasions.

UP NEXT: The Flames travel to Washington D.C. to play Howard of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference on Tuesday night.

UIC won last year’s matchup with the Bison 97-58 at the Pavilion as Karl White Jr. led the way with 20 points on 9-for-11 shooting. Mayo added 18 points, seven assists and four steals as five Flames scored in double figures.

Howard (1-3) lost to St. John’s 79-44 on Saturday night. They have defeated Oregon State and lost to Navy and American.

Eugene Myatt’s 9.3 points per game leads the Bison, who average just 52.2 points per contest.

The game tips off at 6 p.m. on Tuesday night. The game will be broadcast on WIND-AM 560 and can be heard on uicflames.com.

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