CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A lot of emotions from both head coaches, good shooting, and a fourth quarter run weren’t enough for the Mean Green in Champaign on Sunday.
Behind Berry Wallace’s 28 points, Illinois continued its hot stretch to start the season with a 81-69 win over North Texas at State Farm Center.
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“It’s a good, gritty win,” said head coach Shauna Green.
The physical contest was a good test for the Illini (10-1, 1-0 Big Ten) as they near the end of non-conference play.
The two teams combined for 29 turnovers and 50 fouls, which led to each team playing double-digit players and a whole lot of yelling and emotion from both sidelines.
“It was the most physical game we’ve been in all year, hands down,” Green said. “It’s good for our young team to learn.”
The game started off very slow from both teams with multiple offensive fouls and even a three second call for the Illini. This all changed towards the back half of the first quarter.
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Just as the Illini started to hit some shots, North Texas committed a flagrant one foul sending Illinois redshirt sophomore Gretchen Dolan to the line for two shots plus the ball.
After knocking down the two free throws it seemed as if a switch had flipped for the Illini as they all of a sudden started playing a lot faster, a lot more in control, and started knocking down a lot more shots.
The second quarter is where the three-point parade really began for Illinois. In the second, four different Illini connected from deep and as a team they shot five of six for the quarter.
This shooting helped extend the Illini’s seven-point first quarter lead to 14 by halftime.
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“We shot lights out from three,” said Green. “We were getting some paint touches and some kickouts, and a lot of it happened organically.”
The three-point shooting surge only continued in the second half, however, as Dolan, sophomore Berry Wallace, and junior Maddie Webber each finished the game with at least three made threes for the game (four for Dolan).
As a team the Illini connected for 11 makes from beyond the arc, the most they’ve had in a game all season. They also did so on the highest efficiency all season at 64.7%.
“It was really good, it was fun too,” Wallace said. “It’s hard for them to guard all of us and stop all of us.”
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The Illini also shot well from the free throw line and they shot from there often. The game had 50 combined fouls with 30 of those committed by the Mean Green.
Eleven of those 30 were committed against Wallace as well leading to her going 9-for-11 from the free throw line.
Illinois scored 26 points from the charity stripe which helped them lead by as much as 20 and really helped them hold their lead towards the end of the game.
Shooting wasn’t the only thing that won this game for the Illini, however, rebounding played a large role as well.
North Texas senior forward Megan Nestor is currently fifth in the NCAA for rebounds per game at 12.1. Green was prepared for this and multiple bigs such as sophomore Hayven Smith, sophomore Irene Noya Catoira, and freshmen Naomi Benson saw extended minutes Sunday.
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“I knew with this game we could go bigger,” Green said. “I really wanted to try to get some other people some opportunity and some minutes and experience.”
All of this preparation and strong play from all Illini bigs resulted in Nestor ending with only six rebounds on the day, and a big reason that the Illini were able to come out on top as they prevented the Mean Green from even more second chance opportunities.
“I thought we did a phenomenal job against Nestor,” Green said. “We really neutralized her.”
Stat stuffers
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Berry Wallace: 28 points (career high), 9 rebounds, 4 assists
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Gretchen Dolan: 19 points (4-6 from three), 5 rebounds, 4 assists
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Maddie Webber: 16 points (3-4 from three), 4 rebounds, 3 assists
Moments that mattered
Berry Wallace starts the quarter with one from long range.
Dolan passes it to Webber for the three.
Gretchen Dolan knocks down her fourth three of the game.
