GAME NOTES: Coming off an improbable win in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament on Tuesday, the Illinois-Chicago Flames now try their luck against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies in the second round of the 36th annual event on Friday night.

The sixth-seeded Flames trailed by 19 points at the break against Wright State a few nights back but then outscored the seventh-seeded Raiders by a 40-18 margin in the second half, closing out with a 14-2 run in order to capture a thrilling 60-57 victory.

Over on the other side, the third-seeded Golden Grizzlies are just getting started in this event, having closed out the regular season last weekend with an 83-63 loss to Green Bay on the road. The defeat snapped a four-game win streak and dropped the squad to 11-5 in conference play. One of the recent wins for Oakland was an 81-56 thrashing of UIC on Feb. 22, just weeks after Oakland also logged a 91-77 victory over the Flames on the road.

As one of the newest additions to the league, Oakland has yet to even play in a championship game in this event, while the Flames have two crowns to their credit, the most recent coming in 2004 versus Milwaukee.

The winner of this meeting will go up against second-seeded Green Bay on Saturday for the right to play for the title on Tuesday night.

UIC shot an awful 7-of-25 from the floor in the first half against the Raiders, compared to a stellar 60.0 percent for the other side, but in the second half the Flames turned it around as they pulled out the unlikely win. Jay Harris tallied a team-best 23 points, handed out five assists and cleared four rebounds in 40 minutes of action, followed by Ahman Fells and Markese McGuire with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Although he has appeared in just 28 games, starting all but four of them, Harris remains the leading scorer for the Flames with his 14.9 ppg, having knocked down a team-high 44 3-pointers, although he has converted just 30.6 percent of his attempts on the perimeter. The team is scoring only 64.8 ppg on 38.6 percent accuracy from the floor, which is a far cry from the competition at 48.0 percent.

One of the better offensive teams in the Horizon League, Oakland averages 73.9 ppg, but at the same time the defense has been rather lax, permitting 74.6 ppg which means there is little room for error. Kahlil Felder and Corey Petros, the two players who have started each and every game, are the leading scorers for the program with 17.4 and 14.5 ppg, respectively. Felder has been outstanding in so many areas, from his 174-of-207 (.841) shooting at the free- throw line to his massive 238 assists and 62 steals, more than enough reason for him to be named First Team All-Horizon League. Petros, who is a member of the second team, is shooting the lights out from the floor at 60.1 percent and is easily the top rebounder with 8.4 boards per outing.

The Flames have to be drained both physically and emotionally after fighting back for the win against Wright State. Add to that the fact that Oakland won both regular season meetings rather easily and this is another meeting that should go in favor of the Golden Grizzlies.