CHICAGO – After a successful non-conference slate, the IUPUI women's basketball team embarks on its first season in the Horizon League with a game against UIC on Saturday, Dec. 30 at 4 p.m.
Halfway through playing a season-long six-straight games on the road, head coach
Austin Parkinson's squad will play its first Horizon League game in a three-game conference road stretch. The Jags will take on a somewhat familiar UIC team, despite having only played the Flames once in school history. That meeting came last year in Chicago with the Jags coming out on top, 67-57.
This year, IUPUI (8-3) travels to take on a UIC team that finished the non-conference slate 7-4 and with a 6-2 record at the UIC Pavilion.
The Jags went 8-3 in non-conference play and did not drop back-to-back games at any point for the third-straight non-conference schedule. Senior
Danielle Lawrence has been steady for Parkinson, leading the team with 16.6 points per game. The next two leading scorers are new to the Jags.
Freshman
Macee Williams has been a standout all season and has come on very strong as of late scoring in double-figures in five of her last six outings. Williams was named Horizon League Freshman of the Week on Dec. 26 after averaging 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds over the two games the previous week. She also shot 89 percent from the field, making 16 of her 18 shots. Williams is currently second on the team averaging 11.8 points after a career-high 21 against DePaul in her last game.
Redshirt junior
Tamya Sims is in her first year in a Jag uniform after transferring from Bradley and has been a versatile weapon for Parkinson as she is third on the team in scoring (10.5), second on the team in rebounds (5.2) and leads the team in blocked shots (23). She also has 11 assists and 11 steals on the year.
SCOUTING UIC: IUPUI will take a 5-2 road record, having dropped their last game at DePaul, back to Chicago to take on a Flames team that had won four-straight games before falling to Loyola (Ill.) by two points on Dec. 22. UIC is led by Brittany Byrd who is scoring an average of 15.9 points per game and pulling down 5.0 rebounds per contest.
After Byrd, Taylor Toney is the only other Flame in double-figures on the season with 14.9 points per game and is shooting just over 42 percent from the field. The Flames rely heavily on their starters who all are averaging over 21 minutes per game with three playing an averaging of 32 minutes or more. Only one reserve, Tylah Lampley, has seen the court more that 10 minutes per game, logging 15.9 minutes per contest.
The Flames have played in low-scoring contests this year, only averaging 63.9 points per game and topping the 75-point mark just once, a 96-77 win over Evansville. UIC is outscoring its opponents by an average of 4.9 points per game but are allowing opposing teams to shoot over 32 percent from the three point line while only making 27 percent of their own three point shots.
QUOTEABLE: "It is an exciting time as we officially kick off conference play in the Horizon League," said Parkinson. "We have three on the road to start with and we know we will have to play good basketball if we want to be successful."
