Mayo, Flames burn Milwaukee
In the preseason, when describing how he adopted his 1,000-shots-per-day summertime regimen, Josh Mayo nonchalantly explained he learned it while studying the work habits of "other great shooters."
Anyone who thinks that sounds a bit egotistical needs to find a tape of Illinois-Chicago's Horizon League opener Thursday night against Milwaukee.
The junior guard buried 10 of 12 shots from the floor, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range, and all 4 of his free throws to lead the Flames to a 91-73 romp before 3,482 at the UIC Pavilion.
Mayo, the Horizon's third-leading scorer at 18.6 points per game, piled up his 29 points in his first 23 minutes of court time.
He'll go into Saturday's home game against Green Bay shooting 55 percent from the field, 61 percent from 3-point range and 86 percent from the line.
"A lot of the time, or at least lately, Josh has been face-guarded for most of the game," said UIC point guard Spencer Stewart. "For some reason tonight, they were giving him a little too much room to be a good shooter that he is.
"Just half a step and he's able to make a move and create space and get a shot off. I guess they weren't hounding him as much as (opponents) were the last couple of games."
Mayo was one of many players for UIC (4-4, 1-0) who put on a shooting clinic.
Freshman guard Robert Kreps added 14 points off the bench -- hitting 3 of 4 attempts from beyond the arc -- as UIC shot 60.3 percent from the field and 65 percent from 3-point range.
Not bad for a squad that, in its previous game hit just 19 percent from the field in the second half of a 26-point whipping at the hands of Illinois State.
Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter spent a good portion of his postgame locker-room time lacing into his team (3-5, 0-1) for its lack of effort.
"If you can't defend, you can't play basketball," Jeter said. "You can't win games if you can't defend."
UIC overcame an early 6-point deficit as soon as Stewart, Mayo and Karl White returned to the floor midway through the first half.
The Flames proceeded to hit 14 of their next 18 shots as their guard trio kept finding seams and either slashing through them for their own benefit or kicking to a teammate for an open 3-pointer.
UIC never cooled down the rest of the night. Stewart (9 points, 6 assists) even swished a 70-footer with one minute to go while avoiding a shot-clock violation.
"That shot right there didn't bother me in the least bit," Jeter said. "It's the other ones. The ones in the half-court, 5-on-5. That one? Shoot, you've got to laugh at it."