Feb. 15, 2009
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Fighting Illini fell behind Purdue early and couldn't recover, falling 68-50 to the Boilermakers at Mackey Arena Sunday afternoon. The loss snapped a recent hot streak for Illinois, with the Orange and Blue winning four of their previous five games. The game was designated as Purdue's WBCA Pink Zone game, with both teams donning pink uniforms to support cancer awareness. The match-up was also one of four games televised throughout the country on ESPN2 as part of its annual "February Frenzy" to support the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.
Junior All-American Jenna Smith had the 30th double-double of her career, with 14 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Smith struggled from the field, shooting just 5-of-14 as she was swarmed by Purdue's senior post trio of Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton, Danielle Campbell and Lakisha Freeman all game. With her 13 boards, Smith passes Ashley Berggren on the UI career rebounding list and now ranks seventh with 782 rebounds. Smith also extended her double-digit scoring streak to 34 consecutive games, which ranks seventh in the country.
Junior Lacey Simpson led Illinois (8-18, 4-11 Big Ten) in scoring 16 points and also grabbed six rebounds despite spending much of the game in foul trouble. Simpson had two fouls at half, and played the last nine minutes of the game with four fouls.
Purdue (18-8, 11-4) was hot right out of the gates, hitting its first five shots and jumping out to a 16-7 lead at the 14:29 mark behind six early points from Wisdom-Hylton. The Illini responded over the next few minutes, getting the game to within five points on two occasions. After a basket by Simpson made the score 20-15 in favor of Purdue with 9:30 to play, the Boilermakers took over with a quick 9-0 run after Simpson went to the bench with her second foul, pushing the lead to 29-15 with 7:57 remaining in the half. Illinois scored five consecutive points to make the score 29-20 with 3:26 to go, but would get no closer the rest of the first. Freshman guard Lydia McCully had a steal and lay-up at the halftime buzzer to make the score 35-24 at the break in favor of Purdue. The Boilermakers shot 50 percent (15-of-30) from the field in the first half compared to the Illini's 33 percent (10-of-30) and had six turnovers to Illinois' 11.
In the opening minutes of the second half the Illini scored five consecutive points to get within eight points, 39-31, with 16:03 to play. Purdue opened the game up at that point, going on a 14-2 run to lead 53-33 with 8:54 remaining. The closest the Illini would get the rest of the way was within 16 points, as the Boilers had as much as a 21-point advantage. Wisdom-Hylton lead Purdue with 18 points, 10 rebounds and three steals.
Illinois shot 34.5 percent from the field, 22.2 percent from three-point land and 66.7 percent from the line, while the Boilers shot 47.5 for the game, 50.0 percent from three and 76.9 percent from the charity stripe. PU also held a big edge in paint, racking up 38 points in the line to 18 for Illinois.
"I have to give Purdue a lot of credit," Illini head coach Jolette Law said. "They came out hot and then responded when we made our run and cut it to eight in the second half. They looked to attack from the start and we weren't able to catch up."
The Illini will now have the full week off before hosting Penn State at Assembly Hall on Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. The game against the Nittany Lions will be the 2008-09 home finale for Illinois, and is the school's WBCA Pink Zone game to raise awareness for breast cancer. All fans that wear a pink shirt to the game will get in free. In addition, it will be Senior Day for lone UI senior Chelsea Gordon, and former Illini great Ashley Berggren will have her #32 jersey raised to the rafters in a halftime ceremony.
