Nov. 15, 2000

Box Score

Chicago, Ill. -Last Tuesday, the University of Illinois at Chicago women's basketball team played a solid first half in its exhibition opener against the Chicago Challengers, but the Challengers came from behind for the 65-52 victory.

Wednesday night, the Flames played solid basketball from start to finish with a 75-53 victory over the NWBL USA Elite team at the UIC Pavilion in the team's exhibition finale.

Senior Amanda Bartz led the Flames with 22 points (6-for-10 3PT FG) while teammates Kate Yakimenko and Stesha Rhodes each chipped in 12 points. Senior guard Erin Partaker also poured in 10 points.

"Amanda (Bartz) shot the ball real well tonight as did Erin (Partaker)," UIC head coach Tim Eatman said. "LeKesha (Williams) ran the team very well and Jaysie (Chambers) played within herself for the whole game which is very important."

UIC jumped out to a 15-0 lead to open the game and never looked back. They took a 33-18 lead into halftime and put the game out of reach behind the inside-outside efforts of Bartz and Yakimenko.

Bartz drained four out of her five 3-point attempts in the second half while Yakimenko scored eight of her 12 points in the final 20 minutes.

When Bartz got the hot hand, her teammates quickly recognized it.

"It was nothing we did intentionally," Eatman said. "The kids did a great job of reading each other. We penetrated, reversed the ball and in a lot of cases, it ended up in her hands."

The Flames were also impressive defensively as they held NWBL to 24% (6-for-25 FG) from the field and forced 12 turnovers.

Jenny Schmidt led NWBL with 16 points while teammates LaKiesha Gaswue (11 points) and Kimberly Fuller (10 points) also contributed.

Eatman believes that his team is ready for their season opener against Southern Illinois at 3:00 PM on Saturday at the UIC Pavilion.

"You always wish you could have another week, but this team is going to be good," Eatman said. "We just need to work on our defense and keeping the pressure when we get the lead."