Thursday, Jan. 5 Horizon League Men's Basketball Schedule:
UIC at Cleveland State, 7 p.m. ET (Horizon League Network)
Loyola at Youngstown State, 7:05 p.m. ET (Horizon League Network)
Two of the teams near the top of the Horizon League ladder will attempt to fend off two opponents looking to climb the standings on Thursday night. UIC (5-9, 1-3 Horizon) meets Cleveland State (12-3, 2-1 Horizon), while Youngstown State (7-6, 2-1 Horizon) hosts Loyola (5-9, 0-4 Horizon).
At the Wolstein Center, a fiesty UIC bunch will try to hand Cleveland State its second straight loss in conference play. While the Flames are 1-3 in League play, all four games have come down to the wire. After dropping two road games by a total of five points - one in overtime at League-leading Milwaukee - UIC knocked off Detroit by four points before succumbing in overtime against Wright State. The results have been a microcosm of the year for the Flames, who have played a total of eight games decided by five points or less.
Cleveland State will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing loss to Youngstown State last Saturday. Over the last four games, the Vikings have struggled defensively, with three of those opponents reaching 64 or more points, including the Penguins' 73-point performance on Dec. 31.
A key for CSU against UIC will be to force turnovers. Led by D'Aundray Brown, who ranks seventh nationally with 2.7 steals per game, the Vikings rank 10th in the country with a 4.7 turnover margin; UIC is last in the Horizon League with a -4.6 mark. The Vikings have forced an average of 19.0 turnovers per game, having forced six opponents into 20 or more miscues. The Flames enter Thursday night's game averaging a League-worst 16.4 turnovers.
Brown and Jeremy Montgomery will be tasked with stopping the prodcutive UIC back court of Gary Talton and Daniel Barnes, who have shouldered the scoring load for the Flames. Talton had 21 points in consecutive games last week, while Barnes has gone over 17 points five times this year. Up front, UIC will turn to Darrin Williams to dominate the post; Williams has hit 60 percent of his field goals this season, second in the League. Williams' 6.6 rebounds per contest ranks eight in the conference.