CHICAGO (AP) — Josh Crittle scored 20 points, Daniel Barnes added 16 and Illinois-Chicago beat Cleveland State 82-59 on Tuesday night in the first round of the Horizon League tournament.
Gary Talton added 11 points for the fifth-seeded Flames (17-14), and Hayden Humes and Marc Brown chipped in 10 apiece. Illinois-Chicago shot 49 percent from the floor and was 8 of 17 from 3-point range.
Charlie Lee led the eighth-seeded Vikings (14-18) with 17 points, and Bryn Forbes had 16. Cleveland State shot 32 percent and was outrebounded 45-32.
The Flames opened the game on a 30-6 run, capped by an Ahman Fells tip-in with 7:10 left in the first half, and the Vikings never got within single digits again.
Illinois-Chicago moved on to face No. 4 seed Green Bay, which beat Milwaukee 62-46, on Friday in Valparaiso, Ind. The game will be the Flames’ first in the quarterfinals since the 2008-09 season.
