{"id":67600,"date":"2018-02-20T23:28:41","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T05:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=67600"},"modified":"2018-02-21T13:04:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T19:04:13","slug":"uic-overcomes-slow-start-holds-off-detroit-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/uic-overcomes-slow-start-holds-off-detroit-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"UIC overcomes slow start, holds off Detroit Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robbie Weinstein<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a muted reaction for such an eye-popping play.<\/p>\n

Trailing Detroit Mercy by six in the first half, UIC’s Tarkus Ferguson fed center Tai Odiase for a rim-rattling reverse alley oop out of a timeout. A small home crowd and subdued bench barely reacted to one of the Flames’ impressive plays of the season. Nothing came easy for UIC (17-12, 12-4 Horizon League) in its uneven 94-87 win over the Titans (8-21, 4-12) on Monday.<\/p>\n

“It was amazing, because we were probably sharper in shoot-around today than we had been in four weeks, and yet we came out kind of flat,” head coach Steve McClain said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That flatness resulted in an early 12-point Detroit Mercy lead, but the Flames slowly cut the deficit before uncorking 31 points in the last 9:44 of the first half to go up six. The improved energy showed, as the Flames got more vocal and started picking up Titan ball-handlers farther up the court. Detroit Mercy’s Kameron Chatman gashed UIC for 30 points and nine rebounds, but the Flames avoided giving up extended runs.<\/p>\n

“I was really locked in today on their guards, knowing how to pressure them a little bit,” UIC guard Marcus Ottey said. “When you play defense like that, when you try to pressure them a lot, everything else usually falls into place.”<\/p>\n

The Titans regained the lead thanks to a 9-2 run to start the second, but Michael Diggins capped a 9-0 UIC spurt a few minutes later with a three that put the Flames up double digits. <\/p>\n

Eight-of-11 second-half three-point shooting was all UIC needed to hold off the Titans, and Ottey’s game-high 20 points didn’t hurt.<\/p>\n

“I thought he had more pop today,” McClain said. “That’s a good problem to have, when you have a guy that works so much that he wears himself down.”<\/p>\n

The third-place Flames kept pace with league-leading Northern Kentucky and Wright State, and they host Northern Kentucky on Friday with a share of second place on the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robbie Weinstein Medill Reports It was a muted reaction for such an eye-popping play. Trailing Detroit Mercy by six in the first half, UIC’s Tarkus Ferguson fed center Tai Odiase for a rim-rattling reverse alley oop out of a timeout. A small home crowd and subdued bench barely reacted to one of the Flames’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2018"],"yoast_head":"\nUIC overcomes slow start, holds off Detroit Mercy - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/uic-overcomes-slow-start-holds-off-detroit-mercy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UIC overcomes slow start, holds off Detroit Mercy - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Robbie Weinstein Medill Reports It was a muted reaction for such an eye-popping play. Trailing Detroit Mercy by six in the first half, UIC’s Tarkus Ferguson fed center Tai Odiase for a rim-rattling reverse alley oop out of a timeout. 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