Crawford Scores 28, but UIC Stops One Win Short of the NCAA Tournament

ST. LOUIS — UIC brought its first Missouri Valley Conference championship-game appearance within one basket of a second-half lead. Northern Iowa answered before the Flames could take it.

Elijah Crawford scored a career-high 28 points, but UIC lost 84–69 to the Panthers on March 8 at Enterprise Center. The defeat left the Flames at 19–15 overall and ended their attempt to secure the program’s first conference tournament championship and NCAA Tournament berth since 2004.

The final margin was larger than the game’s most important second-half moment. Rashund Washington Jr. made a three-pointer that brought fifth-seeded UIC within 56–54 with fewer than 13 minutes remaining. Sixth-seeded Northern Iowa responded with eight consecutive points over roughly the next two minutes. The Flames had reached the edge of the lead; the Panthers immediately moved it away again.

Ahmad Henderson II scored 13 points off the bench for UIC. Washington and Jayce Nathaniel added ten apiece. Crawford’s career day kept the Flames in the contest, but four double-figure scorers were not enough against a Northern Iowa offense that had been creating efficient chances from the beginning.

The Panthers scored 48 first-half points and led by seven at the break. Their opening 20 minutes included seven made three-pointers, 20 points in the paint and assists on 15 of their 19 made field goals. UIC produced 41 points of its own before halftime and still needed to make up ground.

Trey Campbell led Northern Iowa with 23 points and six three-pointers. Ben Schwieger scored 18. Leon Bond III and Tristan Smith each added ten, with Smith also providing eight rebounds and seven assists. Northern Iowa finished with a 13–4 closing run and secured the Valley’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

Campbell was named the tournament’s most outstanding player. Crawford and Washington earned places on the All-Tournament Team, alongside Campbell, Bond and Drake’s Jalen Quinn. For UIC, those selections recognized the individual performances that had helped carry an unfamiliar tournament position into Sunday’s title game.

The Flames had reached that position by beating Drake 72–51 in the semifinals the previous day. Washington scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed six rebounds. Mekhi Lowery contributed 12 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, while Crawford scored 12 and Henderson added ten.

UIC’s finish against Drake was decisive. After the Bulldogs remained within single digits midway through the second half, the Flames closed on a 19–5 run. The result gave UIC its first Arch Madness final and its first appearance in any conference tournament championship game since the 2020 Horizon League final.

That semifinal also showed the combination UIC needed a day later: multiple scorers, work on the boards and a stretch of defensive possessions that made the opponent’s scoring opportunities disappear. Against Northern Iowa, the Flames continued scoring, but the Panthers supplied too many answers for a comparable closing run to develop.

The two games should not be confused with each other when evaluating the weekend. A 21-point semifinal victory established that UIC could finish a postseason game convincingly. A 15-point championship defeat established that reaching the final did not remove the need to solve another opponent’s offense. The Flames did the first job and fell short on the second.

Northern Iowa’s championship carried its own tournament significance. The Panthers became the first team to win four games in four days in the event’s history and the lowest seed to win Arch Madness. UIC was facing a team that had sustained its play through the full opening-round-to-final route, rather than one whose seed accurately predicted its form that weekend.

For Chicago college basketball, UIC’s run placed the program in a nationally televised championship game with an NCAA berth available. It was an opportunity created by the Flames’ own tournament wins, not a hypothetical measure of where the program might eventually go. The loss therefore mattered because of what was available on Sunday, even while the appearance itself represented progress.

UIC had opened its tournament by defeating fourth-seeded Murray State 92–79 in the quarterfinals. Crawford scored 19 points and delivered six assists as five Flames reached double figures. Andy Johnson and Washington each scored 17. That win put UIC into its first MVC semifinal before the Flames advanced again against Drake. Their two victories created the championship opportunity Northern Iowa ultimately took.

As of this report, UIC’s next postseason destination had not been announced. The weekend’s completed story was already clear: the Flames played their way into the Valley final, Crawford delivered his highest-scoring college game, and Northern Iowa’s shooting and response to the late challenge kept UIC one win short of the NCAA Tournament.