Women’s basketball hot on boards

Terri Bender scored 12 points and had a team-high seven assists Saturday versus Wright State. The Flames hit the road this week, traveling to Green Bay Saturday. — Photo: Timothy Nguyen

The women’s basketball team (14-10, 4-7 Horizon League) led by as many as eight points in the first half Saturday but allowed Wright State (19-6, 8-3 Horizon League) to score 46 points after halftime in a 74-63 loss at the Pavilion.

The Flames travel to Wisconsin Saturday to play at first-place Green Bay (20-4, 10-1 Horizon League). Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. at the Kress Center.

On Saturday, the Raiders hit 19 second-half free throws and held the Flames to 30 percent shooting after halftime.

UIC grabbed a season-high 56 rebounds, including 24 on the offensive end. The Flames outrebounded Wright State, 56-46.

“We were in a good position to pull away in the first half but they stayed in the game due to our foul trouble,” head coach Regina Miller said. “It is difficult to win games in which we send the opponent to the free throw line 34 times. We did not force enough turnovers and were unable to get our transition game started.”

Ruvanna Campbell, who ranks third nationally with 14.4 rebounds per contest, grabbed 22 rebounds to go along with a game-high 19 points. She has four 20-rebound performances this season and six in her UIC career.

Campbell has 18 double-doubles this season. She passed Taylor Foulks (2009-13) for 17th on the all-time scoring list with 1,026 career points.

Terri Bender scored 12 points for her 14th consecutive double-figure performance. She dished out a team-high seven assists and picked up her 68th steal of the season.

Imani Moore played 24 minutes off the bench and set a career high with 12 points. She was 5-of-8 from the field and 2-of-2 from the free throw line.

The first half featured three ties and eight lead changes. The Flames held their largest lead of the contest at 32-24 with 2:04 before halftime. Richelle van der Keijl made two jumpers and UIC’s lead was cut to 33-28 going into the locker room.

Wright State scored the first five points of the second half and went on an 18-8 run to go up, 46-41, with 12:34 remaining. Five straight points from Tay’ler Mingo pushed the Raiders’ lead to 53-44 but the Flames responded, scoring 15 of the next 23 points to narrow the game to 61-59 at 3:07.

UIC missed its final five field goals and the Raiders hit eight free throws down the stretch to seal the road victory.