Illinois (19-15) made its way to Hinkle Fieldhouse on Wednesday for the first postseason championship game in program history. The Illini’s opponent in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament final was the Villanova Wildcats (22-13), who stood in their way of the program’s first postseason trophy.
Hinkle Fieldhouse, the home to both semifinals of the WBIT, was packed with Illini fans as they took advantage of the short drive to Indianapolis.
The starters were senior guards Makira Cook and Genesis Bryant, junior guard Adalia McKenzie, senior forward Kendall Bostic and fifth-year center Camille Hobby. The Illini emerged victorious, earning a historic 71-57 win in the inaugural WBIT.
Head coach Shauna Green raved about her players postgame and gave them credit for battling all year long.
“This WBIT, I’ve had the most fun coaching these guys,” Green said in the postgame press conference. “I’ve never smiled so much during games before. The confidence they were playing with, the togetherness, the trust I think they had within themselves — I just let them play, and they made plays. (I) could not be more proud.”
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As the game started, Hobby announced her presence early with a block and three rebounds in the first six minutes of game time. Early on for the Illini, Bostic recorded her 1,000th career point. The offense picked up for the Illini, taking a 16-12 lead around seven minutes into the first quarter, then the first media timeout finally arrived.
Illinois took a 20-15 lead heading into the second quarter, led by a strong performance from Bostic with eight points and seven rebounds. Bryant and Cook scored seven and five points, respectively. Freshman guard Gretchen Dolan started things in the second quarter with a corner three, extending the Illinois lead to 23-15. Cook picked up her second foul of the game early in the second quarter, and Dolan headed back into the game after a short substitution.
Villanova’s defense stepped it up a notch and forced a couple of turnovers from the Illini offense. Lucy Olsen kept the Wildcats in the game, leading both teams with 16 points. The Wildcats went on an 11-0 run to take a 32-28 lead in the late stages of the first half. The Illini went scoreless for three minutes, forcing Green to take a timeout with 90 seconds left in the half.
Villanova took a 32-29 lead into the half. Illinois was outscored 11-1 over the final 4:07 minutes of the half. Overall, Villanova won the second quarter 17-9, shooting 5-12 from the three in the first half.
Cook got things started for the Illini in the third quarter with a three-point bucket to get within a two-point margin. Another Cook three gave Illinois a 35-34 lead, and she pushed her point total to 11. The Illini went on an 8-0 run to take a 37-34 lead, forcing a Wildcat timeout. After it, the run grew to 16-0, as Illinois led 45-34 — the biggest lead for either team.
Villanova closed the gap to eight heading to the third-quarter media timeout. Bostic earned a double-double before the conclusion of the third quarter, and the Illini offense flowed through scoring leaders Cook and Bryant.
As the season’s final quarter approached, the Illini held a tight 50-44 lead over the Wildcats. Illinois took a 10-point lead just 2:26 into the fourth quarter — a 54-44 advantage that forced Villanova to call another timeout. It took the Wildcats nearly four minutes to get on the board in the fourth quarter, but the Illini responded once again.
Makira Cook was the story of the last quarter: She put up nine points through the first six minutes as the Illini lead extended to 65-51 with 3:52 left in the game. Green took a timeout roughly a minute later as her squad led 65-53.
The Illini built up their lead throughout the fourth quarter, and they never looked back en route to the first trophy in program history. Green and the team cut down the nets as the celebration continued at Hinkle Fieldhouse. But for Green, it’s only the beginning.
“I would describe this as a season of when adversity hits, address it, learn from it, move on from it and get better,” Cook described. “They say, ‘It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,’ so we really took pride in that because we didn’t get off to the start we wanted, but we got the finish that we wanted.”
