The pushing and shoving began well before tipoff. As the Illinois-Chicago players huddled at midcourt for their pregame solidarity ritual, the Oklahoma Sooners, heading out to do the same thing, apparently thought their personal space had been invaded.
There was some jockeying for position, and feisty 5-foot-10-inch sophomore Flames guard Martell Bailey, who is used to clearing out space in the key, refused to yield his piece of the floor. “We were there first,” he said. “Coach told us, `Don’t fear anyone.”‘
UIC didn’t play scared, but bravery doesn’t automatically bring the favorable bounce or make punishment from a bigger, stronger, faster team any easier to absorb. The second-seeded Sooners (28-4) prevailed 71-63 in the first round of West Regional play Friday at the American Airlines Center and move on to face Xavier on Sunday. UIC, seeded 15th, ended its season 20-14.
East Aurora alumnus Aaron McGhee notched a double-double, leading Oklahoma with 26 points and 12 rebounds. After the buzzer sounded, the 6-10, 250-pound McGhee embraced UIC senior forward Cory Little, a former AAU teammate, and coach Jimmy Collins, who tried to land him out of high school.
Oklahoma also got a big boost from senior reserve forward Daryan Selvy, who broke open a close first half at the midway point by reeling off nine straight points, culminating with an emphatic dunk.
“McGhee and Selvy set a great toughness tone for this team today,” Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said.
“Every team you play here is a champion. I thought (Horizon League regular-season champion) Butler was a pretty good team. Butler should probably be in this tournament. But let’s understand that this team is the champion of their league. We struggled with a good team. . . . I was impressed. The Bailey kid and (forward Cedrick) Banks are good players.”
Little and ex-Westinghouse teammates Bailey and Banks contributed 11 points apiece. The trio combined for 18 in the second half, when UIC’s 33 points matched Oklahoma’s and the Flames had 18 rebounds, only one fewer than their opponents. UIC also had only nine turnovers to Oklahoma’s 11 in the game.
“I don’t think they quit one iota,” Collins said. “They worked hard, but we had some bad breaks and we missed easy shots. When you lose to a team the caliber of Oklahoma, you can’t do anything but be proud of the way you played.”
The Flames, who trailed 38-30 at halftime, had a chance to cut the gap to three points early in the second half, but deadeye outside shooter Jordan Kardos missed a three-pointer. At the 4:22 mark, with Oklahoma’s lead again down to eight, Bailey couldn’t convert a three-point attempt. The Sooners weren’t threatened again.
“There was never a point where we felt we were out of the game,” said UIC senior center Thor Solverson, who finished with eight points and seven rebounds but played only four minutes in the second half because of foul trouble. “It’s tough to lose by a closer margin because you think about all the `what-ifs.”‘
UIC squelched Oklahoma’s long-range game, holding the Sooners to a season-low 11.1 percent from three-point range (2-for-18), but made only 5-of-22 attempts themselves.
“The Flames are just getting started with all these young guys,” said Solverson, a finance major and conference all-academic player from Lake Zurich High School. “The nation’s going to hear a lot more about the Flames.”