Illinois (6-16, 1-10) will welcome Northwestern (14-10, 6-7) on Sunday afternoon at State Farm Center in Champaign. 

The Illini are coming on a 70-54 loss against Purdue in West Lafayette. Freshman Adalia McKenzie led the way with 12 points. The second half for Illinois did not fall into its favor as going into half it was only a one-point margin. After the third quarter, the Illini were down 12 points. 

Illinois couldn’t muster a comeback and earned another loss at Mackey Arena. 

Northwestern also fell on the road against No. 5 Indiana. It was a back-and-forth match up between the two, but the Hoosiers got the win. 

Prior to Indiana, Northwestern faced off another ranked opponent in then-No. 4 Michigan. The Wildcats pulled off an upset with a 71-69 double-overtime win at home. 

The Wildcats have been led by senior Veronica Burton, who is a two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. 

Burton is instrumental to Northwestern as she’s the top scorer with 18 points per game and second in rebounds with 5.4 per game.  

To put into perspective, Burton has totaled double-digit figures in 21 of the 24 regular season games and eight 20-plus point performances. 

Three games are left until postseason in Indianapolis, and Illinois, if it wants to pull some upsets and gain momentum, needs to do it now. The Illini haven’t won a game since Jan. 9 against Wisconsin, 68-47. 

Rutgers, which has sat at the bottom of the Big Ten with zero wins for most of the season, has now pulled off a two-game win streak, sinking Illinois to last place. 

The Illini need some solid performances all around the court to end the season on a positive note. 

The game will be live on Big Ten Network at 4 p.m. 

@AngelleCortes

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