The Illini pulled it off.
No. 14 Indiana women’s basketball suffered its fourth loss of the season, falling to Illinois 86-66 this afternoon in Champaign.
The loss drops Indiana to 21-4 on the year and 12-3 in Big Ten play.
Here’s three things:
This was a long time coming
Illinois is better than its 13-12 record suggests and usually gives Indiana a fight. The Ball Knowers among us knew they’d beat the Hoosiers at some point and it is not surprising that senior guard Makira Cook led the charge.
Cook, whose scoring season-highs in each of the last two years came against IU, finished with 22 points and headlined an Illini offense that went to work off the bounce against the Hoosiers.
She and fellow starting guards Genesis Bryant and Adalia McKenzie have had more room to operate from the midrange since Illinois head coach Shauna Green began starting two posts last month.
Kendall Bostic and Camille Hobby gave Indiana a two-forward look they’d yet to see from Illinois while Gretchen Dolan, the only player to come off the bench for head coach Shauna Green, dropped 11 points off 5-7 shooting. All six Illinois players scored in double figures.
Indiana struggled with the dribble penetration and made just two defensive stops during the final 7:46 of the first half. The Illini won that segment 20-8 and went into halftime up 16.
The Hoosiers flirted with making it a game at a few points in the second half but never strung together enough stops to make a run. 14 turnovers and a discombobulated offense, which subbed more than normal as all five starters picked up at least three fouls, sunk Indiana late.
Solace can be found
… in the fact that senior guard Sydney Parrish saw her first game action in over a month after missing seven games with a foot injury.
Parrish only recorded one rebound in six minutes off the bench and did not look 100% but it was still great to see her back on the floor. I have a hard time believing her health had a real impact (positive or negative) on the final outcome.
Lexus Bargesser, was noticeable off the glass early and grabbed a pair of big contested boards early. The sophomore guard’s growth as a rebounder and scorer is lessening the burden on Parrish to return.
Aside from that, graduate forward Mackenzie Holmes dropped 24 off 10-14 shooting and is now connecting at a 65.4% (3rd in NCAA) clip on the year.
Yarden Garzon (17 pts, 8 reb) also played well but both she and Holmes had four fouls with just under six minutes left. Indiana had cut the lead to ten by that point but the foul-conscious defense allowed the Illini to run away with it.
What it all means
With a third conference loss, Indiana’s shot at retaining at least a share of the Big Ten title is probably gone. It’ll be Iowa (12-2 Big Ten), who comes to town Thursday, and/or Ohio State (13-1 Big Ten) taking it this year.
Fortunately, barring losses in all three of its remaining games (Iowa, @NU, MD), Indiana will still get a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.
The Hoosiers will need to make the tournament championship (with a win over Iowa/OSU in the semis) at minimum if they want to retain top-4 NCAA seed status. Assembly Hall has hosted tournament games in each of the last two seasons but today’s defeat likely drops the Hoosiers, who were ranked No. 15 (4-seed) in the first edition of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee’s seed selections last week.
Seeing this team travel on the first weekend would be disheartening but that’s what happens when you fail to stack quality wins and sneak a bad loss in there. We think highly of the Illini, but with a NET ranking of 50 entering today, the numbers don’t.