Dec. 30, 1999

Box Score

Chicago, Ill. - With Head Coach Jimmy Collins shouting “shoot, shoot, shoot,” fifth-year senior Theandre Kimbrough drained a three-point jumper from the right wing with 16.7 remaining to give UIC a stirring 61-59 victory over the Illinois State Redbirds Thursday night at the UIC Pavilion. The win improves UIC’s record to 5-8 while Illinois State drops to 5-7.

Illinois State led by five with 3:58 left thanks to sophomore guard Shawn Jeppson who scored all seven of his points during a 3:30 stretch to forge a 58-53 lead. A Jon-Pierre Mitchom jumper with 2:54 remaining cut ISU’s lead to two and after a L. Dee Murdock free throw, Flames forward Maurice Brown put back a Kimbrough miss to pull UIC within one, 59-58, setting the stage for Kimbrough’s heroics.

“I knew the shot clock was winding down, and I was wide open, so I took the shot,” Kimbrough said. “I knew it was going in – it came off my fingertips right and I had confidence when I took the shot.” Kimbrough’s game-winning three was UIC’s only three-pointer of the second half and just its fourth of the game.

“We didn’t weren’t looking to take a three - we had planned to run the clock down to 10 seconds and try to get a one-on-one situation with either Theandre Kimbrough or Jon-Pierre Mitchom and send everyone else to the boards,” Collins said. “The plan worked as they double teamed J.P., which left Theandre wide open for the game-winner.”

The Flames built a 15-point lead in the first half, 30-15, thanks to freshman Joe Scott. With the game tied at 12-12, Scott scored nine of his 12 points off the UIC bench, including seven points during a UIC 18-3 run with 5:49 remaining in the first half. Illinois State, however, closed the first half out with a 15-4 run of its own as Murdock sparked the Redbirds with seven of their 15 points during the run. Murdock finished the game with 21 points to lead all scorers.

UIC’s defense, which forced 24 Redbird turnovers, held leading scorer Tarise Bryson, who was coming off of a 40-point effort against Miami (Fla.) and a 32-point outing against Northeastern on Tuesday, to just 14 points for the evening while the junior guard turned the ball over a team-high nine times.

Kimbrough finished the evening with a team-high 14 points while snagging eight steals, which matched a UIC school record.