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Seven in a Row

1/26/04
by John C. Thomas
Cedrick Banks scored all 22 of his points in the second half to hand the Ramblers their seventh straight loss and their fourth straight loss at the Gentile Center, 64-57, Monday night. The loss represents the sixth sweep in the 10 years since UIC joined the league, the 21st loss in 29 games against UIC, the sixth straight loss overall to UIC, and the fifth loss at the Gentile Center this season.

Loyola allowed the Flames to score on every possession for the first 4 ½ minutes of the game and found themselves down 12-6 with just under 14 minutes left in the half. But a noticeably improved and energetic Loyola defense thwarted UIC for several minutes while the Ramblers slowly climbed back into the game.

LU went ahead 18-17 with 4:50 remaining in the half after holding UIC to 3-for-15 shooting from the field through the middle of the period. After UIC went ahead 23-20 with 2:55 left, the Ramblers went on an 8-0 run to take a 28-23 halftime lead into the locker room. Noticeably absent from the scoring sheet was Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year Cedrick Banks.

UIC came out of the halftime break with a killer instinct that should be all too familiar to the Ramblers and their fans. The Flames erased a five point halftime lead in the first 91 seconds of the second half, and kept going. When the Flames’ 11-0 run to start the second half run was over, they held a 34-28 lead with 16:58 remaining.

Three point bombs by two unlikely candidates-- Louis Smith with one, and then two from DaJuan Gouard-- helped Loyola tie the game at 42-all with 13:10 left to play. But Cedrick Banks scored 19 points through the first 15 minutes of the second half, capped by a three point play that gave UIC the lead for good at 54-53 with a couple ticks more than five minutes left to play.

Down the stretch, the Flames dominated the game. UIC went the last 5:15 of the game on a 14-4 run dominated by six Ced points and a key offensive rebound on a missed free throw.

Banks led all scorers with 22 points. Demetrius Williams played valiantly for the Ramblers, scoring 18 points to go with 12 rebounds. Louis Smith and Paul McMillan also scored in double figures for Loyola with 13 and 11 points respectively.

Loyola played a good game tonight against the preseason conference favorites, and the effort was even more impressive given the absence of Majak Kou due to a toe injury and the absence of Terrance Whiters to a back injury. Nevertheless, yet another season sweep at the hands of UIC is demoralizing.

No other team in the league has caused as many problems for the Ramblers as the Flames. Since joining the MCC/Horizon League in 1994-95, UIC has won the season series in seven out of their 10 years in the league, and in the other three seasons the Flames earned at least a split. Overall, UIC has captured wins in 21 out of 28 meetings against Loyola, including an amazing 13 straight games at the Pavilion dating back to the Reagan administration. But even more significantly, the Flames have handed the Ramblers arguably their two most bitter defeats in the past decade and a half-- the 76-75 overtime game to decide the 2002 Horizon League Championship, and last year’s 66-65 Senior Night loss to the Flames on a last-second three-pointer that came amid confusion when the referee would not grant a time out after a free throw.

Moreover, this embarrassing drought against UIC hasn’t exactly come under an oppressive talent gap. The Flames have had three seasons of 17 or more losses in the past five plus years, and two seasons of 20 or more losses. And yet given that, and the added motivation of the two crushing losses in the past three years, the Ramblers are 0-4 against the Flames since the 2002 HL Tournament Championship.

If you can’t get up for a battle with a crosstown team in your own conference that has schooled you for years, what can you get up for? Jimmy Collins is now 14-3 against Loyola because he knows where his bread is buttered. Larry Farmer is now 3-10 against UIC, a team that has fully and completely supplanted us in terms of college basketball gravitas.

How low can we go? We’re tied for seventh in the Horizon League with Youngstown State, and Chicago State has five wins to our six. UIC and DePaul rule us. We've had one winning season (17-13 in 2002) in 17 years. We’ve effectively ceded our 90 years of basketball tradition, our Hall of Fame coach, our third place finish in the NIT, our two runner-up finishes in the NIT, our National Championship, and our Sweet 16 appearance to a school that was founded in 1946 on Navy Pier.