The Golden Grizzlies, after walking away with a loss to the IUPUI Jaguars days before, bounced back in a big way against the UIC Flames last Sunday. 

Their third quarter woes and slumps, a problem that plagued them during the Jaguars game, seemed nonexistent during this matchup as they went head-to-head with the Flames and came out on top. 

The game opened up with a score for the Grizzlies after a turnover was created on the other side of the ball, and the race was on to see who could figure out the opposing defense first. The score remained deadlocked at 2-0 in the Grizzlies favor for minutes before the Flames scored their first basket. 

The quarter continued on this way, with both teams trading shots until around the midpoint of the quarter. Something just clicked and fall into place for the Grizzlies, going on a 10-5 run to close out the quarter with the lead. 

The quarter break did not stop the red hot offense, as the Grizzlies continued to find and exploit holes in the Flames’ defensive scheme. Consistently getting to the cup and the foul line, raining jumpshots down from everywhere on the court, there wasn’t much the Flames could do to stop the Grizzlies as they ended the quarter on fire and entered halftime with a 31-18 lead. 

The third quarter saw the Flames kick everything into high gear to try and keep up with the Grizzlies, leaving it all out on the floor to claw their way back into the fight. The Grizzlies, however, had no intention of letting up as they also shifted into another gear while trying to put the Flames away. 

The quarter saw the Grizzlies put up 19 points to the Flames’ 18 points, pushing the total score to 50-36 and keeping the Grizzlies firmly in the driver seat for this game. Going into the final quarter with all the momentum and power, the Golden Grizzlies would easily close out the Flames in what was an amazing comeback performance from last Friday’s loss. 

With a score of 59-47 at the final buzzer, the Grizzlies grabbed a hold of the lead and simply never looked back as they rocketed towards the finish line while the Flames fizzled out. The shooting splits for this game were not the best, but they still marginally outplayed their opponent. 

The Grizzlies shot 21-57 from the field and 5-24 from the 3-point line [good enough for 37% and 21% splits, respectively], while the Flames notched a score of 15-44 from the field and 2-11 from the three-point line [good enough for 34% and 18% splits, respectively]. 

The Grizzlies won this game on the boards, dominating the rebounding battle with a score of 38 to 26 [with 17 of those rebounds being offensive boards]. Overall, the team needed a victory like this to bounce back and re-focus their attention on the final stretch of the season. 

The Golden Grizzlies will return to the court on Thursday, Feb. 10 to face off against the Green Bay Phoenix at 7 p.m. in the O’rena.