Illinois women’s basketball forward McKenzie Piper ran out of the tunnel in Assembly Hall for an actual Division I NCAA basketball game for the first time Sunday. Following a parade of cheerleaders, the freshman was greeted by the school song and an above-average sized crowd of 1,625.

Just three minutes and 25 seconds into her first game, Piper was taken off the bench and thrust into the action. She didn’t get a rest until seconds were left in the first half. 

“As a freshman, there’s a lot thrown at you,” head coach Matt Bollant said.

In addition to playing 17 minutes in her first half of college basketball, Piper was forced to play an unfamiliar position.

“Sometimes today, Piper was playing the five (center),” Bollant said after Sunday’s 84-52 win over Evansville. “She hasn’t played any five yet, so it’s time to learn and it’s time to step up.”

The freshman from Iowa City stepped up when it counted. Because of early foul trouble to starters Kersten Magrum and Karisma Penn, Piper was called on for 25 minutes in her career opener, and she took advantage, scoring 14 points and grabbing seven rebounds.

“I’m proud of her,” Bollant said. “You could tell she was tired at times, but she kept fighting.”

Piper is listed in the program as a guard, but the 6-footer has cracked into the frontcourt rotation along with Penn, Magrum and Nia Oden.

The former guard showed that she isn’t afraid to make her presence known outside of the paint, converting two of six 3-point attempts and finishing 4-for-4 at the foul line.

Defensive adjustments

For the first time this season, Illinois got into foul trouble Sunday.

With four starters committing at least two first-half fouls, Bollant decided to switch the defense from man-to-man to the “buzz” defense, which Bollant described as a 2-1-2 zone that plays the passing lanes.

“It’s unique to women’s basketball,” he said. “There’s a lot of teams trying to run it, but not many teams will run it as aggressively as our players. Not many teams will play as hard in it as we do.”

Bollant said he didn’t know where the name for the defense came from, but some other teams who run it call it the “twilight” defense.

“It needs to be called the “buzz” because nobody runs it as well as we will,” he said.

“It’s a style of defense that most teams don’t see. It’s unique to Illinois and it’s going to give people fits.”

The Illini ran the “buzz” and their man-to-man defenses well on Sunday, holding the Purple Aces to 25.5 percent from the field, including 15 percent from behind the arc. Illinois also forced 26 turnovers and outrebounded Evansville 52-36. Illinois’ 25 fouls allowed Evansville 38 free-throw attempts.

Starting off strong

Bollant became the fourth head coach in program history to win his first game at Illinois. He joined former head coaches Laura Golden, Theresa Grentz and Jolette Law. Both Golden and Grentz lost their second games, while Law didn’t lose until her third.

Sunday’s 32-point margin of victory was the most by any of the coaches. Law won her first game by 30 points.

Illinois’ new head coach also won his first game at Wisconsin-Green Bay and Bryant College. Bollant never lost a season opener at Green Bay.

None of the players on the current roster had won their season opener at Illinois until Sunday, suffering defeats to Temple, Illinois State and South Carolina, respectively, in the last three seasons.

Illinois was one of 10 Big Ten schools to win its season opener. Indiana and Ohio State lost to Valparaiso and Notre Dame, respectively.

Johnathan can be reached at [email protected] and @jhett93.