Winning beginning for women’s basketball in exhibition

Terri Bender made nine assists against Roosevelt in the Flames’ opening exhibition game Monday. UIC opens the regular season Nov. 13 at home against Howard.

The UIC women’s basketball team opened the exhibition season with a 99-47 victory over Roosevelt Monday at the UIC Pavilion.

UIC returns to action Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. against Indiana-Northwest to close out exhibition play at home. The Flames open their regular season with a noon matinee Nov. 13 versus Howard at the UIC Pavilion. Games are free to UIC students with current i-card; general admission is $8.

The Flames produced a balanced attack in Monday’s game, with five players scoring in double figures led by Cate Soane with 16 points.

UIC trailed by seven points early in the first period before a 36-6 outburst propelled the Flames to a 47-24 halftime lead. At one point during that stretch the Flames scored 27 consecutive points. UIC shot 50 percent (35-70) from the field and combined for 28 assists.

On the defensive end, the Flames collected 21 steals and forced Roosevelt into 32 turnovers.

Soane, a redshirt sophomore transfer from Loyola, connected on 7-of-9 shots off the bench in her first action with UIC. Sophomore Teodora Zagorac started and scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 16 minutes of action. Senior Imani Moore (11 points) was perfect from beyond the three-point arc, going 3-3. Ruvanna Campbell added 12 points and seven assists while fellow senior Terri Bender dished out a team-high nine assists.

The freshman foursome of Brittany Byrd (12 points), Taylor Toney (seven points, two steals), Desiree Jackson (four points, four steals) and Catera Etheridge (two points, two assists) all contributed to the victory.