Illinois-Chicago pastes Northern Illinois 69-49 Eds: APNewsNow. Illinois-Chicago 69, Northern Illinois 49.

CHICAGO (AP) Robo Kreps had 25 points and nine rebounds Saturday to lead Illinois-Chicago to a 69-49 victory over Northern Illinois.

Jeremy Buttell scored 16 and Zavion Neely 13 for the Flames (3-6).

Michael Fakuade led the Huskies (1-7) with 11 points and nine boards.

Northern Illinois got off quickly, leading 11-4. But Neely's basket, part of a 10-0 Flames run, tied it 11-11 with 14:27 left in the first half, and Illinois-Chicago never trailed after that.

K.C. Robbins scored with 3:29 left to give the Flames their largest lead of the first half at 34-18. They led 36-27 at intermission and steadily pulled away.

The Flames outshot the Huskies 42.9 percent to 32.5 and committed only seven turnovers.

UIC beat NIU for the third straight time and the ninth time in a row in Chicago.

Northern Illinois lost for the 40th time in its last 45 road games.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 12-19-09 1741CST | save this article / add to your favorites list