CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Pure domination.
Coming off an absolute beatdown over LIU, where the game finished with a score difference of 72 points, the Illini were looking to ride the hot hand and keep firing on all cylinders.
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And boy, oh boy, did they do just that.
The orange and blue of Shauna Green trampled the Bellarmine Knights 90-41 Tuesday night, continuing their perfect record at home on the season.
It was one of those games where you knew exactly how it was gonna go after a couple of possessions. Right from the start, the Illini were making plays on both sides of the court. Anything the Knights tried to do, the Illini would shut it down, force turnovers, and respond with buckets.
Possession after possession, the Illini would generate great looks after moving the ball at an extremely high level, to then get it back, and create even better offense. Like clockwork.
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Turning stops into points was the core of the 32-point lead going into the break.
But the real domination was on the glass. At half, the Illini outrebounded them by 33-9 — 16-0 offensively, and 21-0 on second chance points. It really doesn’t get more one-sided than that.
It wasn’t a coincidence that the Illini had such success rebounding the ball. Green challenged the squad to do so heading into the game.
“Another challenge that I gave these guys is to, we’ve been talking a lot about our offensive rebounding,” Green said. “And we really hadn’t hit our goals of that. So tonight, our goal was 14, and we had that in the first half, I think we might have almost had it in the first quarter, I think I said, so we killed that with 27.”
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It was more or less the same the entire second half. The Illini found all the answers that were needed throughout the game, causing them to further extend the lead to 49.
To cap off the night and the cherry on top of it all was the 16-point, 12-rebound double-double from freshman forward Cearah Parchment, who is also coming off a points-steals double-double last game in which she is one of five players in NCAA DI this season and the only freshman to do so.
Stringing together performances like that was the mindset that Parchment had entering this game.
“Just carrying over what I did from last game, just being active,” Parchment said. “But this time, I guess it was on the rebounds, you know, just staying in the gap, still, just really carrying defense to offense, I think that was really important tonight.”
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With conference play around the corner, this kind of group effort on the glass will be fundamental going forward. Winning these rebound battles will only result in more and more success for the Illini.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
What the tweet says.
Berry Wallace going coast to coast!
Gretchen Dolan for threeeeee!
What a way to get your first bucket in the orange and blue!
STAT STUFFERS
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ILL won rebound battle, 64-27
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ILL 28 second chance points, Bellarmine 0
UP NEXT
The Illini will now prepare for their toughest task so far, as the Indiana Hoosiers come to Champaign on Saturday for the first conference matchup of the season.
Tip-off is scheduled for 11 a.m. CST and will be shown on the Big Ten Network.
