CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - No. 21/23 Illinois showed no quit and fought for all 40 minutes in a 83-72 defeat to No. 6/6 Indiana in front of a loud State Farm Center crowd on Wednesday night.
Four Illini finished in double figures, led by a team-high 18 points from Genesis Bryant, her eighth consecutive game in double figures. Bryant scored 10 points in the second half, including the team's first nine points of the second half, while adding two assists.
Kendall Bostic recorded her seventh double-double of the season with a 17-point, 11-rebound performance. Bostic shot 77.8% from the field and scored 11 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter, while she extended her streak of recording at least one block to 11 games.
Adalia McKenzie scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half and provided a major spark for the Illini early in the first quarter. McKenzie also registered four rebounds, four assists, and a team-high two steals.
Makira Cook tallied 14 points, four rebounds, and eight assists in her team-high 37 minutes.
Brynn Shoup-Hill added eight points and grabbed eight rebounds, including six offensive boards.
Illinois held the narrow rebounding advantage, 31-30, though the Illini grabbed 12 offensive boards and scored 13 second-chance points.
McKenzie started the game firing on all cylinders, making her first three shots of the night in a back-and-forth opening five minutes of play. The Illini used a 7-0 run to push its lead to nine points in the opening frame, and they ultimately took a 21-18 advantage after 10 minutes of first-quarter action.
Illinois used seven second-quarter points from McKenzie to hang with the Hoosiers, though the Illini ultimately trailed 37-31 at halftime. McKenzie led all scorers with 13 points at the break, while Illinois registered assists on seven of its 12 first-half first goals.
Trailing by 16 at the start of the fourth quarter, Illinois started to mount a comeback. Bostic scored the team's first nine points of the frame, bringing her up to double figures. A 9-0 Illini run cut their deficit to single digits with just over four minutes to play, with Bostic scoring 11 points in the frame.
No. 21 Illinois, now 15-4 overall and 5-3 in conference play, travels to Evanston on Sunday afternoon to take on Northwestern (6-11, 0-7). Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. from Welsh-Ryan Arena.
QUOTES
Shauna Green
Opening statement:
"Obviously not the result we wanted, but give Indiana a ton of credit. They're a really good team with so many different weapons. We came out really strong, and the first quarter was great. I thought once we got into some foul trouble in the second, we just couldn't score. You can't score 10 points against a team like Indiana and think you're gonna beat them.
"Really, really proud of our fight. We came back. We won the fourth quarter, 21-16. We're gonna learn from this. We're gonna grow from this game. We're still a young and inexperienced team, really. These are moments, these are opportunities for us to learn and to grow from. This team has never been in a lot of these moments, so this our first time going through a lot of these things together. I know this group, and we're gonna be better for it. We're gonna learn from it. We'll bounce right back, but I'm really, really proud of these guys because they never gave up and they just continued to fight.
"We'll learn, we'll evaluate, and now we got to be better and get better so we can go on the road and play Northwestern. That's our focus right now."
On the State Farm Center crowd (the final attendance was 5,583):
"It was amazing out there today. To look up, and I'll never forget it, I think it was after that first game, when I talked to the crowd after the game, I said, 'The vision is to see that whole lower bowl full every single night. Today, we looked up, and we had people up in the upper deck. Orange Krush was absolutely amazing. They were here over an hour ahead of the game. Thank you to Orange Krush and what they do.
"I hope, just because we lost this game, I hope everyone comes back. I hope that all the fans come back. I don't want it to just be because we played the sixth team in the country or we played Iowa. We need this every single night. In two months, to see this crowd, it was absolutely amazing. This is what women's basketball and these players deserve. They deserve to play in front of this crowd. They deserve to play in front of that environment. I'm just happy for our players that they get to compete in that because that's what college basketball is about."
On how the campus and community has embraced the new era in Illinois women's basketball:
"That's probably been the best thing about this whole journey we've been on. It's to see the excitement. I went out there, and even (Indiana head coach) Teri Moren said, 'Oh my gosh, this is unbelievable. This is not how it was.' For an opposing coach to look around and say that, we've come a long ways, but it has to be consistent."
Kendall Bostic
On the State Farm Center crowd:
"It was really cool. We had people coming in when there was like 70 minutes still on the warmup clock. Just seeing that community come together for us, we haven't had that before. Even the students are getting involved. It's not just the community. It's not just families bringing their kids; it's the students at the school. It's really cool for me having played here last year and not having that, it was just really cool, and I'm really happy they came tonight."
On three close losses to top-10 teams:
"All these games are learning experiences as a team. A lot of the returners have not been in these situations before, like close games against big teams. I really think it's just learning to stay together when that team goes on a run. The No. 2 and No. 6 team in the country, they're gonna go on a scoring run, but we just have to be able to, stick together, withstand their runs, be able to punch back. By the end of the season, we'll be more prepared for stuff like that, but I mean, it's all learning. It sucks, but you gotta learn from it. We can make little changes in practice. We can make little changes in other games, and slowly but surely, we'll be more comfortable in this situation."
Genesis Bryant:
On the team's late comeback:Â
"I feel like we would just attacked more. We knew that we only had two minutes left, and if we would have had that a little earlier, it would have been different. We stayed in attack mode, going downhill, getting fouled."
Indiana head coach Teri Moren:
On the Illini coaching staff and the program's evolution and improvement:
"Shauna's done a great job, she and her staff, because it takes all of them. I think the most important thing is that any time you're building, it takes belief from your players, and I think she's getting them to believe. They're a talented group that's going to continue to win a lot of ball games down the stretch here. There's no question. I'm sure that nobody wants to see them in the Big Ten tournament. I think it's great for our league. Like I said, I can't overstate it enough, how hard it is to build, but she seems to be doing all the right things right now."
On the State Farm Center atmosphere as the visiting team:
"What a boost in the arm it does for your kids, the energy in the building, and it was loud tonight. The other way that it helps is in recruiting. People want to play in front of fans, so that's going to help as well. I give my hat off to Shauna and the fans of Illinois tonight because they showed up and watched two top-25 teams square off. This will become a place like Assembly Hall where people don't want to show up and play there because our fans are so great. It's only a matter of time for this group and this program."
POST-GAME NOTES
Player Notes:
- Kendall Bostic scored 17 points, on 7-for-9 shooting, and secured 11 rebounds
- Posted her seventh double-double of the season.
- Has five double-doubles in her last eight games.
- Has grabbed at least seven rebounds in 11-straight games.
- Tallied her 12th game with double-digit rebounds
- Recorded a block for the 11th-consecutive game.
- Genesis Bryant scored a team-high 18 points, going 3-for-5 from behind the arc, and added two assists.
- Has made at least two 3-pointers in nine-straight games.
- Has eight-straight games with at least 14 points scored.
- Scored the team's first nine points coming out of halftime
- Makira Cook scored 14 points, grabbed four rebounds and dropped a game-high eight assists.
- Has scored in double-digits in 11-straight games.
- Has at least four assists in four-straight games.
- Has eight assists in two of her last three.
- Was responsible for 13 of Illinois' 21 first-quarter points (2 FG, 4 AST).
- Brynn Shoup-Hill scored eight points, going 3-for-4 from the floor, and added eight rebounds
- Went 2-for-3 from behind the arc.
- Has made at least two 3-pointers in four-straight games.
- Adalia McKenzie scored 15 points and added four rebounds and four assists.
- Scored 13 of her 15 points in the game in the first half.
- Has double-digit scoring efforts in five of her last six games.
Team Notes:
- Illinois won the tip and scored first - a Makira Cook layup 22 seconds into action.
- The Illini trailed at the half for just the third time this season.
- Held Indiana without a field goal for a stretch of 4:23 in the second quarter.
- At least four players scored in double figures for the fifth-straight game.
- They have out-rebound their opponents in every game this season.
- The Illini scored 13 second-chance points on 12 offensive rebounds.
Misc. Notes:
- Starters: Makira Cook, Genesis Bryant, Adalia McKenzie, Brynn Shoup-Hill, Kendall Bostic for the sixth-straight game. Illinois is now 4-2 with this unit.
- Second-best attendance at home this season (5,583) behind Field Trip Day (8,141)
- The Illini moved to 15-4 on the season.Â
- Illinois moves to 5-3 in Big Ten play.
- Illinois is off to the best start in Big Ten play since 2012-13 - a 6-3 start.
- Shauna Green is now:
- 15-4 at Illinois
- 5-3 in the Big Ten
- 142-54 as a Division I coach
- 171-79 overall
- Against Indiana record: 30-48 (78th meeting)
- 17-19 when playing in Champaign.
- Shauna Green vs. Indiana: 0-2
- Uniforms: Illinois is now 9-1 when wearing white uniforms.
- Nights games record: Illinois is now 6-1 in games played after 5 p.m.
