CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois used a balanced scoring attack with seven players in double figures and took advantage of 38 Millikin turnovers, rolling to a 108-38 exhibition win at State Farm Center on Saturday. Junior guard Kyley Simmons - seeing her first action in an Illini uniform - led all scorers with 17 points, while seniors Brittany Carter and Ivory Crawford chipped in 15 points apiece.
Freshman Chatrice White posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, along with four blocks and four steals, redshirt-freshman Kennedy Cattenhead had 11 points and nine boards in 12 minutes off the bench, Taylor Tuck had 11 points in 10 minutes and Amarah Coleman posted 10 points in 14 minutes.
"I feel like we've got a lot more weapons offensively, and I think we showed that today," Illinois head coach Matt Bollant said. "We didn't shoot the ball real well in the first half, but we had better shot selection in the second half. And we showed that a lot of people can score.
"But we have a long way to go defensively. We weren't happy at all with the way we talked and the way we communicated in the first half. I thought we were a little better in the second half. But there probably isn't anybody that's really good defensively in their first game."
The Illini struggled offensively at the start of the game but caught fire at the 17:45 mark after Carter went coast-to-coast following a steal. Illinois reeled off a 16-1 run, making seven straight shots, to go up 18-3 at the 14:44 mark. But a trey by Simmons at 12:43 was the Illini's only points until Carter made her own offense with a steal and layup again at 9:08.
The Orange and Blue gradually pushed its lead to 23 with a three-point play from Crawford, going up 36-13, with 5:09 left in the half, and led 52-23 at the intermission. Simmons had 14 points, Crawford had 13 and Carter 10 at the break.
Illinois came out of the locker room firing in the second half, making six of its eight first shots to push the lead to 41 at 66-21. Leading 68-28, the Illini scored the next 11 points as Coleman and Tuck saw their first action and took advantage, scoring six points during that stretch as Illinois extended the margin to 79-28 at the 9:19 mark.
After a Millikin three-pointer, Illinois used a 17-2 burst to push ahead 96-33, with Tuck scoring seven, Cattenhead posting six and Coleman scoring four in that stretch. The Illini finished it by scoring 12 of the game's last 16 points, finishing the 108-38 win.
The Orange and Blue open the regular season Friday, Nov. 14, at State Farm Center against IPFW, with a 3 p.m. tipoff.
