Butler knows that it has been successful against Illinois-Chicago in recent years by containing guard Josh Mayo.

The 17th-ranked Bulldogs hope to harass Mayo into another miserable performance on Saturday and win their eighth straight when they complete a two-game Horizon League road trip with a matchup against the Flames.

Butler (15-1, 6-0) has won seven of its last eight meetings against Illinois-Chicago (9-7, 2-4), with Mayo playing in the last seven. The senior guard is the Horizon League's preseason player of the year, and is living up to that billing by averaging a league-best 18.1 points.

Mayo, though, has never enjoyed much success against the Bulldogs' vaunted defense, averaging 9.6 points on 29.4 percent shooting. In the lone victory over Butler in his career, Mayo attempted 12 free throws in a 73-67 overtime win on Jan. 10, 2007, but has a total of only eight foul shots in the six losses.

Butler won all three meetings with UIC in 2007-08, including 66-50 on March 8 in the semifinals of the conference tournament. Mayo made 2-of-13 shots in that game for five points - his lowest total over the last two seasons.

It may help the Bulldogs that Mayo enters off back-to-back poor performances. He has scored a total of 16 points in his last two games on 5-of-21 shooting, but the Flames overcame his 10-point effort Thursday to end a four-game losing streak with a 77-52 win over Valparaiso.

Robo Kreps had a game-high 23 points while Tori Boyd added 14 and Rob Eppinger 13 for UIC, which scored 27 points off 18 turnovers. It was a surprising outburst by Kreps, who failed to score in the Flames' previous contest - a 79-69 loss at Cleveland State last Saturday.

The Bulldogs, meanwhile, can start 16-1 for the second straight season as they try to extend their road winning streak in league play to 10 games.

Butler stretched its overall winning streak to seven with a 78-55 rout at Loyola of Chicago on Thursday. The Bulldogs opened the game on a 24-4 run, led by 15 at the break and scored the first 12 points of the second half as they were never threatened.

``It was good,'' coach Brad Stevens said. ``Part of that was we were making some shots. I think our first six points were on the offensive glass. I think that's important for this team.''

Freshman Shelvin Mack scored 20 points and Matt Howard added 18 points and 11 rebounds. Mack made four 3-pointers as Butler converted 11-of-22 - the sixth time it has finished with at least 10 this season.

``We got going, I think Shelvin made a couple of 3s to start the game,'' Howard said. ``It just went from there and everybody started making shots.''

Howard recorded his third double-double and is averaging 16.4 points during the Bulldogs' seven-game winning streak.