Illinois women’s basketball opened its season with a 73-56 win over North Carolina Central. 

It’s been over a year since fans were back at State Farm Center, so for the coach and players, it was nice being filled with screaming fans and not silent cardboard cutouts.

“It was definitely nice to have fans back in the gym,” said Michigan State transfer Kendall Bostic. “It was kind of hard last year just like the first year of college for both (Aaliyah Nye and I), and there’s no one in the stands. It was really cool to have that kind of atmosphere like you know the smoke, the intro, the lights.”

 Bostic had a strong performance in her Illinois debut grabbing a double-double with 14 points and 17 rebounds. 

“That’s something I kind of pride myself in is my rebounding,” Bostic said. “I think it’s an effort thing. An offensive board gets the team going.” 

Both the Illini and NCC had a shaky start at the beginning of the game. Nearly two minutes in, no points were on the board. The Eagles broke the deadlock with Tianna Carter going for two, getting the lead. 

Nye and Geovanna Lopes got the next four points giving the Illini the lead, and they pretty much held it the entire game. 

In the first quarter, the Illini scored 18 points going into the break just five above the Eagles at 13.

The second quarter saw Illinois continue to rack up points, running away with the lead and going into the half 13 points ahead. 

After halftime, the Eagles had a newfound energy and were hungry to get back within single digits with the Illini. After Erika Porter’s free throw was good, NCC went on a seven point run, getting them within nine points. 

A high press from the Eagles forced the Illini to play quick, which caused some sloppiness and nine turnovers within the third quarter. 

However, the Illini didn’t stop putting points on the board, and Nye added to her already high scoring performance, sinking two three pointers in a row. 

In the last quarter of the game, NCC put all their drive into getting points and they did just that. They scored the same amount of points as the Illini, however, their drive to win was too late as Nye and Bostic were unstoppable at the bucket. Nye’s efforts on the court had her score a career high of 23 points. 

One of head coach Nancy Fahey’s goals this season was to score more, and for a team that scored just below a 60 point average this season, it’s a step in the right direction for the Illini. 

However, the bigger storyline overall is the 25 turnovers.  

“We really got to clamp down on taking care of the ball,” Fahey said. “You just have to be able to play different styles that aren’t yours.” 

One game down into the season and the Illini have a lot of stuff to work on before their next upcoming game. 

“I think our performance as a team, we could get a lot better yet how many turnovers we had, so that’s something we need to work on,” Nye said. “I think the little things like the effort was really good. We were getting on the floor, we were trying to get steals. Like we don’t want to just sit back in our defense, we want to get steals and things like that. So I think we have a lot to work on, but we did improve a lot today.” 

@AngelleCortes

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