GAME NOTES: A pair of teams from the Land of Lincoln aim for their first wins of the season on Monday night, as the Illinois-Chicago Flames host the Western Illinois Leathernecks at UIC Pavilion.

The Leathernecks were at home on Friday as they hosted the Pacific Tigers and ended up on the wrong end of a 73-71 overtime decision. Following the trip to the Windy City, WIU will be back home in McComb this weekend in order to host Southeastern Louisiana.

As for the Flames, they burned out versus the DePaul Blue Demons in the final seconds of Friday's matchup, 72-71, at McGrath-Phillips Arena. Following tonight's clash, UIC will have a few days to rest before taking part in the Men Against Breast Cancer Classic at Kent State, playing three games in as many days this weekend.

The Flames lead the all-time series by a count of 19-16, although WIU won the most recent encounter two seasons ago by a score of 70-54 at home.

In a game that featured four ties and three lead changes, the Leathernecks came up short versus visiting Pacific a few nights back in the season opener. Shooting just 4-of-11 from the floor, Garret Covington led four players in double figures with his 15 points, adding six rebounds in an effort to offset his four turnovers. Mike Miklusak, only 4-of-12 from the floor, added 12 points, while Jamie Batish and Dalan Ancrum accounted for 10 points apiece for a squad that shot only 39.7 percent from the field and 8-of-27 (.296) beyond the arc.

The Leathernecks doomed themselves as they missed all five of their field goal chances in the extra period.

Meanwhile, the Flames were also caught in a tight game as well and they too had a chance to pull off the win, but a 3-pointer at the buzzer by D'Juan Miller missed the mark. The Flames were paced by Marc Brown who tallied a game-high 19 points, converting all eight of his free-throw attempts, while Paris Burns and Jake Wiegand delivered 15 points apiece, the latter also clearing a game-high 12 boards.

The problem for the Flames is that they made a total of just nine field goals in the first half and shot 2-of-10 behind the 3-point line. Had the rims been more kind to the visitors than perhaps the end would have turned out differently, but it simply was not meant to be as the squad converted just 36.8 percent from the floor for the entire night.

Having gone the extra mile in the opener, the Leathernecks already have a tough loss out of the way. Unfortunately, based on how hard the Flames fought in their first game of the season, they are not about to give in to an in- state rival in front of a hometown crowd.