Illinois finally met its match Thursday night against Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville losing 71-62 at State Farm Center. 

“I felt like as a team, we gave it our all at the end when we should have done that in the beginning, time just ran out,” Aaliyah Nye said. 

Even though Nye scored 17 points and Kendall Bostic tallied 13 rebounds, Illinois just couldn’t find their tempo on the court. 

After strolling with two comfortable 70+ point wins that wasn’t the same story against the Cougars. 

The Illini had a strong start going 3-5 in their three pointers and 7-17 in field goals and ended the first quarter leading 17-10.  

However, that was the last time Illinois had the lead throughout the night.

In the second quarter, the Illini had just scored single digits at nine while SIUE were at 19. Of the nine points, five were from free throws. 

Illinois were struggling on both sides of the ball and just couldn’t figure out a way to get themselves back on track. 

“They got more rebounds than us (and) they out hustled us in the beginning,” Nye said. 

Come the third quarter, the Illini were better at scoring, but just couldn’t best the Cougars. SIUE had already gained a substantial lead by ten points. 

The Cougars had four players on the court score eleven plus points with Gabby Nikitinaite getting 15 points to her name.

Then in the fourth quarter, the Illini had made a strong comeback despite being down by 13 at one point. Nye started it off with a free throw and three pointer to lead a 9-0 scoring run putting them just three behind with under two minutes to go. 

Just as the Illini were close to tying with the Cougars, SIUE found themselves at the free throw several times, which boosted them up in points to extend the lead and eventual win for their first of the season.  

Overall head coach Nancy Fahey wasn’t happy about the performance tonight. 

“I’m just really speechless about our effort tonight,” Fahey said. “It sounds like if we don’t score, defense kind of doesn’t lock in. When they put the ball on the floor, you can see their strategy was attacking us off the bounce, and we gotta do a better job and I’ve got to do a better job.” 

It’s the first loss in the books for Fahey this season and Illinois is in for a long one with Big Ten play beginning at the end of December, but it’s a learning opportunity. 

“We’re all gonna probably take a serious look into the mirror tomorrow,” Fahey said.” We’ve already started and that includes coaching staff, that includes players. I’ve got to reflect on how to make sure my team’s ready to play at another level of intensity, which we didn’t today.” 

@AngelleCortes

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