 "Photo: Ryan Calacsan")
On a cold winter's night in the city of Chicago, a city void of many meaningful games so far in 2008, the UIC Flames men's basketball team looked to give this city and campus a jolt of energy and try to heat things up against the eighth ranked team in the country, the Butler Bulldogs.
A ferocious crowd of 7799 proud fans saw the Flames fight to the end, but fall 51-46. It was poor decisions on senior night by a few of the Flames most experienced players and disappointing overall shooting that did UIC in.
The game itself started well for the Flames, as tough 2-3 zone defense slowed the Bulldogs, igniting the crowd higher and higher as every second ticked off of the game clock. In the early minutes of the first half, the Bulldogs exposed themselves to the Flames, showing that they take only shots that UIC would concede, and so they shot three after three. Fortunately for the Flames, not many went in as the Bulldogs shot 6-20 from behind the arc in the first half.
UIC held Butler to 22 points in the first half (allowing just four points from inside the arc). Jermaine Dailey added in eight points, going 4-4 from the floor in his last game at the Pavilion in his career. "I left everything on the floor tonight," said Dailey of his efforts.
As intermission concluded, the Flames came out determined to give the home crowed and their senior teammates a night to remember, but never sealed the deal. Right out of the gate UIC came out and went to what worked in the first period, feeding to ball down low to Dailey and junior Scott VanderMeer. VanderMeer and Dailey combined for half of the Flames points on the night thanks to this strategy.
With the resurgence that the Flames brought from their halftime pep talk, they would eventually tie the game at 46 with 1:13 left in regulation and the momentum on their side. But in the ensuing seconds that chance disappeared as the eighth ranked team in the nation would come back as they have all season and impale a dagger into UIC. Senior A.J. Graves hit a three-point shot with 45.4 seconds left on the clock, sealing up the ugly victory for a "top tier" team in the country. "Not pretty but we will take it," said Brad Stevens, Butler's head coach.
On a night where the seniors of UIC wanted to shine and leave a lasting memory of their basketball careers at home, Dailey, Karl White Jr., Robert Bush and Ebenezer NooNoo would eventually go out in a losing effort at home. "You are not going to win when to of your seniors go 1-12 on the night, it was a good effort but no cigar," mused Jimmy Collins, head UIC coach.
White was held scoreless on the night, failing to convert a showboat dunk attempt late in the first half. Bush hit only one of seven shots.
With this most recent loss to Butler, the Flames disappointingly stood at 14-13, 8-8 in league play, before heading to Northern Iowa last Saturday. The team can still improve their record and go out on a high note,. The Flames travel to Green Bay and Milwaukee this week and then it's the Horizon League tournament to finish out the year.
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