The Illinois State Redbirds and the UIC Flames meet Thursday in college basketball action from UIC Pavilion. Illinois State dropped back to .500 on the year with a loss to Wright State last Wednesday. As for UIC, they’re coming off their second loss of the year versus UNC Greensboro, falling to 5-2 overall. Let’s get into our Illinois State vs. UIC prediction.
Illinois State Redbirds
The Redbirds came out of the gate pretty strong this year with a 3-1 run. Outside of a loss to St. Louis, Illinois State had victories over Lourdes, Eastern Illinois, and Long Beach State in that time. In game five however, the Redbirds took a tough 74-72 loss to High Point thanks to just 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) from 3-point range and a 35-25 rebounding deficit.
Illinois State suffered a rough showing in their last game versus Wright State. The Redbirds were drilled 39-21 in the first half in that one and limped to a 74-49 defeat. No Illinois State player hit double-digits; the closest were Darius Burford and Kendall Lewis, each with nine points and a combined six rebounds.
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UIC Flames
Over on the UIC side, they took an opener loss to Cincinnati 69-58, but then hit a nice five-game win streak. Those victories came versus Little Rock, Loyola, Aurora, Middle Tennessee, and George Washington. In the 89-79 win over the Colonials, the Flames hit a nice 50.8 percent from the floor with 37 rebounds and 14 team assists.
UIC couldn’t keep their streak going versus UNC Greensboro in their latest outing. The Flames had a 29-24 edge going into the second half but eventually faded in a 58-57 loss. Isaiah Rivera led the way as the only double-digit scorer on 14 points, five rebounds and one assist in 29 minutes of work.
UIC VS ILLINOIS STATE PREDICTION
I’ll stay with UIC. The Flames are coming off a tough one-point loss to a pretty good UNC Greensboro team, shooting a tepid 39.2 percent from the field and 26.7 percent from 3-point range. The good news is that the Flames were strong on the boards with a 40-30 rebounding advantage. UIC has hit 70 points in all five of their wins however, so they should get back to their high-scoring ways on Thursday.
As for Illinois State, they couldn’t buy a bucket against Wright State, hitting just 9.1 percent (2-of-22) from outside. I like the Redbirds to take a step forward and score better in this one, but I don’t think they’ll cover.