Illinois-Chicago 50, Northwestern 44: Josh Crittle scored 13 points and the visiting Flames held the Wildcats without a field goal in the final 4:18 to notch their fifth straight win.

Crittle's layup with 53 seconds remaining gave Illinois-Chicago (6-1) the lead for good at 46-44 as the Flames ended the game on a 10-2 run. Illinois-Chicago claimed its fourth straight win over Northwestern (6-2), which has dropped two in a row.

Daniel Barnes added 10 points and Gary Talton scored six of his season-low eight points in the second half.

The game was ultimately decided at the free-throw line where the Flames made 14 of 15 attempts - with its only miss being the final attempt in the closing seconds. The Wildcats were only 10 of 20 from the charity stripe.

Drew Crawford paced Northwestern with a game-high 18 points and Reggie Hearn added 10.

NOTEBOOK: Illinois-Chicago is off to its best start since the 2003-04 season, which was the last time the Flames made the NCAA Tournament. ... UIC head coach Howard Moore, who was a former assistant at Wisconsin, is now 2-0 against the Big Ten. ... Northwestern, which leads the Big Ten in assist-to-turnover ratio, had 16 turnovers and just 11 assists.