The Illinois women’s basketball team’s trip to the Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam turned out to be a lot like a dysfunctional family vacation.

There are many ups and downs of a vacation with the whole family. One day the family is having a great time on the beach, and the next day everyone is arguing over day trip plans.

Illinois’ trip followed a similar path over Thanksgiving break, starting out on an all time high for the program, but the Illini finished the tournament at 1-2.

The Illini opened the Paradise Jam by defeating No. 9 Kentucky, 77-71. Illinois last beat a ranked team in 2012, but the 5-0 start to this season was something of a rarity. It was the first 5-0 start by an Illinois team in 12 years.

The Illini shot better from 3 point range and from the free throw line than they had all season. With just over two minutes left, Kentucky cut the Illinois lead to three points but junior Kyley Simmons closed the win out for Illinois by going 9-of-10 from the free throw line.

“I just had to take them one at a time,” Simmons said. “My teammates and coaches give me all the confidence, and I was able to hit them.”

Reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Week Chatrice White led the Illini with 23 in the upset.

“I think everyone underestimates us,” White said. “I think we made a statement tonight. It was crazy, we were so hyped in the locker room. It was a great feeling.”

Whether it was an upset hangover or a reality check, head coach Matt Bollant’s squad came crashing back to reality in their next two games.

In the second game of the tournament, Illinois showed a familiar weakness in a 67-61 loss to USF.

The Illini finished the game with 12 fewer rebounds than the Bulls. Bollant pointed to the disparity as one of the main issues.

“We had a five point lead in the second half, but they stepped up and made a lot of plays,” Bollant said. “They hit some threes and got to the line and got offensive rebounds, but I thought we showed a lot of heart and a lot of fight. We just didn’t get enough defensive rebounds and that was the difference.”

After the first loss of the season, Illinois took another blow. The Illini fell to Oklahoma 78-76 in overtime in their final game of the tournament. The Illini once again got beat on the glass, but Bollant cited a different reason for the loss after his team blew a 10 point lead in the second half.

“Late in the game, we got caught up in the end result and that hurt us,” Bollant said. “Hopefully a learning thing was that one play, one rebound, one not turning the ball over and you see a difference in the game. I thought we played our hearts out to build that lead and put ourselves in that situation, we just didn’t finish it unfortunately.” Although Illinois lost twice, another bright spot during the tournament was the play of senior Ivory Crawford, who averaged over 24 points per game.

Like any vacation, the Illini will come back home and move forward with a positive experience under their belt.

“We learned a lot about ourselves, that we can compete with the very best,” Bollant said. “I don’t think we knew that coming in, so that’s a really good thing.”

Brett can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @Blerner10.