The Illini (15-5, 5-4) are back at State Farm Center Wednesday to host their toughest opponent yet this season: the No. 2 UCLA Bruins (19-1, 9-0).

UCLA is nothing short of a powerhouse in women’s basketball. Fresh off a final four appearance and reigning the Big Ten Champions, the Bruins are stacking up to be the Illini’s toughest opponent yet. 

The Illini enter this matchup after a loss to the then No. 24 Nebraska Cornhuskers (15-5, 4-5). Illinois struggled when it came to putting on a good performance on both ends of the court. Because of that, it ultimately led to its fifth loss of the season.

“Until we figure out that you got to come out and you got to be ready to play, and I continue to tell them, show them and we got to understand that,” said head coach Shauna Green after the loss at Nebraska. “This league’s too good. You can’t fight back all the time.”

With uncertainty around redshirt sophomore guard Gretchen Dolan’s return, uneven offensive performances and a messy defense lately, the Illini need to be on their A-game to host the West Coast powerhouse. 

Spreading out offensive load

It’s no secret that sophomore forward Berry Wallace is a superstar on the Illini’s offense. However, lately, she is the only Illini who seems to be able to perform well in the first 20 minutes of any game. Against Nebraska, Wallace had 18 of Illinois’ 23 points in the first two quarters. Against Michigan, Wallace had 17 Illinois’ 32 points going into the half.

“She had 18 (points) and the rest had 4 (points),” Green said. “You can’t win like that. Not in this league.”

The Illini can’t keep counting on Wallace to be the only one performing well on their offense, especially against tougher opponents. As their opponents grow tougher, so will the opposing defense. UCLA’s defense is one of the best at limiting its opponents to score. If Illinois continues to rely on Wallace early on and if UCLA learns to guard Wallace early on, Illinois is going to have little to no offensive contribution. 

While the Illini have had strong offensive performances outside of Wallace, she is basically the leading scorer for her first 20 minutes on the court. Instead of Wallace being the only one who is able to score, the rest of the offense needs to be grabbing the ball and making smart shots.

In its recent game against Nebraska, making shots and smart shot selection was a challenge for Illinois. If Illinois is able to be smarter about the shots they take, it is one of the big ways it can put up more points on the board and outscore its opponents. 

Test for Illinois’ young roster

Freshman forward Cearah Parchment might be one of Green’s most talented freshmen. The Canadian has won Big Ten Freshmen of the Week three times this season so far for a reason.

Parchment fights hard offensively and defensively and she is always active on the glass, grabbing both offensive and defensive rebounds. She is an all-around talented player who can do a little bit of everything and do those things well.

“I think the last few games she’s been elite on the boards,” Green said. “She was really aggressive last game offensively which we needed. We really needed someone to step up and help with scoring and she did that. She’s averaging almost 15 points in the last five games so she’s really stepped it up and been rebounding it well. She just continues to get better while being thrown into the fire, and she’s able to adapt quickly.”

Parchment’s energy on the court is unmatched. She constantly fights and plays hard. While she is known to get into foul trouble, she is learning to work through that and manage the amount of fouls she gets. Even Green said how she should’ve let Parchment play more with early fouls against Nebraska. She only played for eight minutes and scored 2 points in the first half against the Cornhuskers. However, Parchment bounced back and played the full 20 minutes of the second half where she also scored 23 points.

On top of all of that, Parchment also grabbed 11 total rebounds to mark her sixth double-double this season. 

Parchment isn’t the only freshman who is up for a test against UCLA. Freshman point guard Destiny Jackson has been upping her offensive game as of late. Jackson scored 13 points against the Cornhuskers, marking her third-best game in terms of points. However, Jackson also had her third-highest number of turnovers in her most recent games. 

UCLA is going to be the perfect test for both of these freshmen to see if they can still perform at their usual high levels and minimize their errors against one of the best in the country. Parchment needs to work on how much she fouls, whereas Jackson needs to minimize her turnovers.

Playing hard for 40, not 20

“It has to be every single possession locked in, focused, discipline, execution,” Green said. “We got to continue to grow in that. Second half (against Nebraska) was great, but this is a 40 minute game, not 20.”

Green said it best when she said that despite a great second half in their last matchup, her team needs to play for a full 40 minutes at high energy, not just 20 minutes. Time and time again this season, the Illini have struggled to put up a consistent and strong performance for 40 minutes. In the Nebraska game, Illinois woke up after halftime and played like a true Big Ten team. Or on the other side of things, against Indiana, Illinois struggled to keep up a strong second half after a stellar first 20 minutes. 

The Illini can score, defend, rebound and doing all that is necessary to come out on top against the Bruins. However, the only way they stand a chance is if they can learn to play hard, focused and accurately for 40 minutes and not have 20 good minutes instead. 

UCLA is obviously going to be on its A-game and playing strong and accurately, as it currently stands at No. 3 in the NCAA with its field goal percentage of 51.63%. Additionally, UCLA is No. 14 for rebounds overall. The Bruins’ accuracy for their shots and activity on the glass is part of what makes them a dangerous and deadly combo coming into State Farm Center.  

UCLA dominated past common opponents

The Bruins and the Illini have had their fair share of common opponents this season. The only difference, however, is that UCLA has dominated each of these common opponents out of the water. 

Illinois and UCLA have six common conference opponents thus far this season. All of those being Ohio State, Penn State, Nebraska, Maryland, Purdue and Northwestern. The Bruins have beaten all of these programs, whereas the Illini have fallen short to two of them. 

Out of all of the teams that the Bruins and the Illini have both beaten, the Bruins have on average beat those opponents by 26.67 points. The Illini, on the other hand, beat those opponents by an average of 8 points. 

Some of the biggest differences in how much harder conference matchups were for the Illini versus an easy win for the Bruins are against the Wildcats and the Terrapins. Both Northwestern and Maryland, Illinois struggled to come out on top in victories. It beat both of these opponents by 3 points each time. UCLA, on the other hand, obliterated both of these programs, beating Northwestern by 34 and Maryland by 30. 

“I mean, obviously they’re third in the country for a reason, powered behind Lauren Betts and they got, I mean, all the pieces around them,” Green said. “Great guards. There’s six seniors … the core group’s been together. I mean, they’re really good. We got our work cut out.”

UCLA’s ease when it comes to any opponent definitely needs to be a worry for Illinois. No matter the opponent, UCLA finds a way to outperform and effectively defend any challenge in its way. For the Bruins, the Illini are just their next opponent, whom they can most likely easily beat. For the Illini, the Bruins are coming into their house.  

Illinois will take on UCLA on Jan. 28th with tipoff set for 6 p.m. CDT. 

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