The key to beating Illinois-Chicago might as well be plastered all over a billboard on the Eisenhower Expressway. That`s how much of a secret it isn`t. UIC coach Bob Hallberg has made the point again and again. His team can play good defense, and on occasion his team can drain three-pointers with the best of them. But game in and game out, it has trouble beneath the boards.
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Want to douse those Flames, baby? Take it inside.
That`s what Wright State did Saturday night when 6-foot-5-inch Sean Hammonds, 6-8 Bill Edwards and 6-7 Jeff Unverferth combined for 68 points and 33 rebounds in a 93-82 Wright State victory at Dayton.
”Hey, as Humphrey Bogart once said, `Play it again, Sam,` ” said Hallberg. ”It`s always the same way. When we lose it`s because of our inside game. When we win it`s because of our outside game.”
Exhibit A: In UIC`s 92-69 romp over the Raiders on Jan. 4, the Flames were 13 of 26 from three-point range. In Saturday`s loss, they were 7 of 34, including a 2-for-10 effort from Brian Hill and a 1-for-8 night for Travon Hughes.
Add in Wright State`s 48-38 edge on the boards and six-point nights from the Flames` inside attack of Sean Buchanan and Eugene Witherspoon and defeat was pretty much a foregone conclusion by halftime, when Wright State led 50-39.
”We`re just doing a very poor job of interior defense,” said Hallberg after his team had slipped to 5-4 in the Mid-Continent, 8-10 overall heading into Monday night`s matchup with Western Illinois at the Pavilion. ”The result is that if we play against a team that gets most of its scoring from the perimeter, we do well, but if a team has a dominating inside game, they hurt us.”