It seems just a matter of time before Josh Mayo sticks a dagger into an opponent with his three-point shooting.
The Illinois-Chicago guard’s moment came less than eight minutes into the second half Saturday night against Youngstown State as he shut down a Penguins rally with back-to-back threes that helped restore a double-digit lead.
Mayo finished hitting 5 of 7 three-pointers and collected a game-high 21 points as the Flames claimed a 86-72 Horizon League victory over the Penguins.
“Every [opposing] team is going to make a run, and I was just looking for my shot,” said Mayo, the nation’s three-point-shooting percentage leader at 56.5 percent. “My teammates got me the ball in the right spots, and I was able to knock them down.”
UIC (12-10, 6-5) improved to 9-0 at home and 17-2 all time against Youngstown State, which limped out of town with an 0-2 mark in a week that included a last-second loss Thursday at Loyola.
The victory was the second straight for the Flames and third in the last five games. The Penguins (7-15, 3-9) have lost six straight and eight of nine.
Mayo, though, was hardly the whole story.
“The way we won was important to me,” Flames coach Jimmy Collins said. “We really, really had a balanced attack. We talked all week about moving the ball and not being impatient on offense, and we were able to do that.”
Youngstown led for exactly 90 seconds before a Mayo layup gave his team a lead it never relinquished.
Freshman guard Robert Kreps then stepped in as big gun as he scored 11 points, including a pair of three-pointers, in an eight-minute span as the lead grew from 18-12 to 34-20 with 5 minutes 9 seconds to go in the first half.
The Penguins, who shot only 29 percent (9 of 31) in the opening half, abruptly reversed fortunes through the first 6:28 on the second half.
They hit 6 of 10 in that span, including six points from guard Vytas Sulskis, to trim the deficit to 51-45.
But the Penguins got no closer, and Mayo went to work with consecutive three-pointers over a 52-second span while guard Robert Bush added a quick basket off an inbound feed as the lead suddenly went back to 12 points at 59-47 with 12:40 to play.
