Illinois women’s basketball lights it up from downtown in Big Ten Tournament victory over Wisconsin
The Illini basketball team applaud after the playing of “Hail to the Orange” at the end of a match against Rutgers on Sunday. The Illini went on to break an 11-game losing streak during the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday against the Badgers.
March 3, 2022
Come tournament time in March, the second season begins and for the Illinois women’s basketball team, a clean slate could not have come soon enough. Coming into their first round matchup with the Wisconsin Badgers, the Illini were losers of the last 11 conference games.
Their last win came on January 9 against Wisconsin, and the team definitely kept that in mind during the game on Wednesday night. Illinois was victorious 75-66 and completely dominated the Badgers throughout the forty minutes of action.
All five starters scored in double-digits for Illinois, and they were led by sophomore guard Aaliyah Nye who scored 17 points on 5-6 shooting from downtown. Nye was pleased with the team’s overall performance, and especially with how they shot the basketball.
“Since it is tournament time, we really needed to focus on what we can do, and I think we all came together,” said Nye.
Along with Nye, Jada Peebles had 12 points on 4-5 shooting from three. The team shot an absurd 75% from the three-point line, which was quite the way to begin the Big Ten Tournament.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
But to say that Illinois lived by the three in their opening round victory would not be true, as everyone on the team stepped up and delivered. Erika Porter had 15 points, Kendall Bostic had 12 and Adalia McKenzie dropped 14.
After watching the Illini struggle to get in the W column over the past few months, it was refreshing to see such a complete team performance. One of the standout performers from yesterday Kendall Bostic spent her freshman year with the Michigan State Spartans and is happy to have an increased role with the Illini for this Big Ten Tournament.
“Coach Fahey has always talked about that when March hits anything can happen, everyone’s an underdog,” said Bostic. “I think we knew before the game that we really had an opportunity here, and I’m super proud of how everyone played today.”
Despite Illinois’ struggles in conference play during the year, they seem to be picking up momentum and could make a deeper run than expected in this tournament. Head coach Nancy Fahey was proud of the team’s ability to push through the struggles with COVID-19 throughout the year and win their first round matchup.
“It’s been a tough January and February for a lot of reasons,” Fahey said. “This team never broke, the locker room was never broken and you could tell by the way they supported each other. And that is what I was really proud of.”
@WillPayne33
