Jan. 12, 2008

Box Score

CHICAGO - J.R. Blount and Justin Cerasoli each recorded season highs with 23 and 21 points, respectively, but it wasn't enough as Loyola University Chicago (5-11, 1-5 Horizon) dropped a double-overtime thriller at city and Horizon League rival UIC (9-7, 3-2 Horizon) tonight at the UIC Pavilion. The Ramblers played their first two-overtime game since Jan. 14, 2001.

"When you win this kind of game, you are ecstatic and when you don't, it really hurts," Loyola head coach Jim Whitesell said. "It's always a tough game when we play UIC. We had the ball with a chance to win it in the first overtime and didn't get a quality shot off. In the second overtime, we just got outplayed. I'm proud of our effort. We played with a lot of heart."

Loyola got off to a quick start and led 14-6 seven minutes into the game. UIC rallied to score the next eight points and even the score before the Blount scored five straight points to give the Ramblers a 19-14 edge. Behind Blount's hot shooting, Loyola led 25-23 at the half. The junior guard hit 6 of 10 shots in the opening half, including 3 of 4 from behind the arc.

Karl White scored six unanswered points in the second half to give UIC a 40-35 lead, which they would hold until the closing seconds of regulation. Robert Bush's three-pointer with 2:59 left gave the Flames a 54-49 lead. Tracy Robinson hit a pair of foul shots and Cerasoli hit a jumper to cut the lead to 54-53. After a pair of foul shots from Josh Mayo with 16 seconds remaining, Blount buried a three-pointer, his fourth of the game, from the top of the key with six seconds left to tie the game at 56 and force an extra session.

The teams traded baskets for most of the first overtime period and Mayo's bucket with 1:15 left evened the score at 61. UIC had the ball under its own basket with a chance to win with 35 seconds left, but Cerasoli intercepted the in-bounds pass from Mayo to give Loyola a crack at a final shot. However, the Ramblers were unable to get off a shot before the horn sounded, thus sending the game into a second overtime session.

Scott VanderMeer's tip-in to start the second overtime period ignited a 7-0 UIC run and from there, the Flames never looked back.

Blount scored a season-high 23 points to lead Loyola before fouling out in the second overtime, while Cerasoli chipped in a career-best 21 points, with 10 of those coming in the extra frames. UIC was led by Mayo's 20 points.

Loyola looks to snap a four-game losing skid when it hosts Detroit on Jan. 17.