National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Illinois-Chicago 50, Northwestern 44
When: 2:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 1, 2012
Where: Welsh-Ryan Arena, Evanston, Illinois
Officials: # D.J. Carstensen, # Ted Valentine, # Johnny Wilkins
Attendance: 5838
By SportsDirect Inc.

Illinois-Chicago 50, Northwestern 44: Josh Crittle scored 13 points and the visiting Flames held the Wildcats without a field goal in the final 4:18 to notch their fifth straight win.

Crittle's layup with 53 seconds remaining gave Illinois-Chicago (6-1) the lead for good at 46-44 as the Flames ended the game on a 10-2 run. Illinois-Chicago claimed its fourth straight win over Northwestern (6-2), which has dropped two in a row.

Daniel Barnes added 10 points and Gary Talton scored six of his season-low eight points in the second half.

The game was ultimately decided at the free-throw line where the Flames made 14 of 15 attempts - with its only miss being the final attempt in the closing seconds. The Wildcats were only 10 of 20 from the charity stripe.

Drew Crawford paced Northwestern with a game-high 18 points and Reggie Hearn added 10.

NOTEBOOK: Illinois-Chicago is off to its best start since the 2003-04 season, which was the last time the Flames made the NCAA Tournament. ... UIC head coach Howard Moore, who was a former assistant at Wisconsin, is now 2-0 against the Big Ten. ... Northwestern, which leads the Big Ten in assist-to-turnover ratio, had 16 turnovers and just 11 assists.

Top Game Performances
 
Illinois-Chicago   Northwestern
Josh Crittle 13 Scoring Drew Crawford 18
Josh Crittle 4 Assists Dave Sobolewski 4
Josh Crittle 9 Rebounds Reggie Hearn 9
Gary Talton 4 Free Throws Made Drew Crawford 4
Josh Crittle 4 Steals Reggie Hearn 1
Josh Crittle 1 Blocks Alex Olah 3
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Illinois-Chicago 50 30.9 2-14 14-15 8 31 1 9 10
Northwestern 44 34.9 4-16 10-20 11 28 5 2 16