They became, in the second half Tuesday night, the gang that couldn`t shoot straight.
After holding its own against 12th-ranked Michigan State on the Spartans` Breslin Event Center court for a little over a half, Illinois-Chicago went into the deep freeze and finished on the long end of a 75-51 decision.
”The whole game boiled down to shooting ability in the second half,”
said discouraged Flames coach Bob Hallberg. ”If you can`t come out and score points, you can`t beat anybody.”
Trailing 32-31 at halftime, UIC (2-5) grabbed a 35-34 lead on two free throws by Kenny Williams with 18 minutes 3 seconds left in the game. But then Michigan State (7-0) rattled off eight straight points, and the rout was on.
”Our team is starting to look at the other team`s record, and prepare accordingly,” said Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote. ”We can`t play like this and beat Big 10 teams.”
The Flames, who shot just 35 percent (10 of 29) of their field-goal attempts in the first half, made only 10 percent (3 of 29) of their attempts in the first 15 minutes of the second, including missing 12 straight 3-point attempts, in falling behind 63-39.
At one point, Michigan State held Illinois-Chicago scoreless for 6:47, scoring 19 straight points, and the Spartans led by as many as 27 points in the late stages of the game.
”I don`t know how much credit you can give to our defense,” Heathcote said. ”I think they just had a cold-shooting half.”
Michigan State`s Dwayne Stephens led all scorers with 19 points, while Anthony Miller and Mike Peplowski had 14 each. Kenny Williams led the Flames with 16 points, but leading scorer Brian Hill made just 2 of 20 shots, including a 0-for-8 second half as UIC finished shooting 26 percent (17 of 66) for the game.
Lacking a way to deal with Michigan State`s inside game, the Flames took 29 three-pointers in the game, missing all but five.
”Brian Hill made one of 11 threes, when sometimes he`ll make eight in a row,” Hallberg said. ”We thought we could win this, but we just collapsed”
