2 weeks Ago
Lineups Illinois (18-5, 8-4 Big Ten) P Name Yr. Ht. PPG Hometown G Jasmine Brown-Hagger So.
5-9 9.0 Shorewood G Genesis Bryant Sr. 5-6 15.
0 Jonesboro, Ga. G Adalia McKenzie Sr. 5-10 12.
5 Brooklyn Park, Minn. F Brynn Shoup-Hill Sr. 6-3 5.
1 Goshen, Ind. F Kendall Bostic Sr. 6-2 16.
0 Kokomo, Ind. ➜ FYI: Foul trouble took away somewhat from what was one of Brown-Hagger’s better performances of late in Thursday night’s 73-60 Illini win at home against Northwestern. Brown-Hagger, who was 9 of 27 shooting from the floor the previous four games, had nine points in 26 minutes and made 3 of 5 shot attempts in the 13-point victory against the Wildcats.
But she also fouled out with two minutes, 39 seconds left in regulation. P Name Yr. Ht.
PPG Hometown F Berry Wallace Fr. 6-1 8.4 Pickerington, Ohio G Cori Allen So.
5-10 1.2 Nashville, Tenn. C Hayven Smith Fr.
6-6 1.1 Frankfort Wisconsin (11-12, 2-10 Big Ten) P Name Yr. Ht.
PPG Hometown G Ronnie Porter Jr. 5-4 8.6 St.
Paul, Minn. G Natalie Leuzinger Gr. 5-8 7.
9 Monroe, Wis. G Tess Myers Gr. 5-9 7.
8 Pittsburgh C Carter McCray So. 6-1 9.8 Oberlin, Ohio F Serah Williams Jr.
6-4 19.1 Brooklyn, N.Y.
➜ FYI: Williams ranks top five in the Big Ten in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots with the 2024 All-Big Ten First-Team Selection third in scoring, second in rebounding (10.6 per game) and second in blocks per game (2.5).
Her scoring average through 23 games is also a career-high with Williams — who is playing well alongside McCray, a Northern Kentucky transfer — shooting 50.3 percent from the floor. P Name Yr.
Ht. PPG Hometown G Halle Douglass Gr. 6-2 4.
1 Lake Forest G Lily Krahn Jr. 5-10 4.8 Prairie du Chien, Wis.
G/F Jovana Spasovski Fr. 6-0 2.0 Belgrade, Serbia Details ➜ Site: Kohl Center (17,287); Madison, Wis.
➜ Streaming: BTN Plus ➜ Radio: Mike Koon will have the call on WDWS 1400-AM, WDWS 93.9-FM. ➜ Series: Wisconsin leads 42-41.
➜ Last meeting: Wisconsin won 67-61 on Jan. 7, 2024, in Champaign. FYI: It’s been an even split in the last six games of the series, with Illinois and Wisconsin posting three wins apiece.
The Illini are 1-1 against the Badgers with Shauna Green as coach, including a 79-63 win in Madison during Green’s debut season and last year’s six-point home loss. That defeat was part of a 0-4 start to Big Ten play last winter for the Illini, as Serah Williams had a monster game for Wisconsin with 27 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks. Beat writer Joe Vozzelli’s storylines Playing through the post The 73-60 Big Ten win Illinois delivered on Thursday night against Northwestern — the fifth straight victory for the Illini — saw another side to Kendall Bostic.
The fifth-year senior took on the role of playmaker, matching a career-high with six assists, as the 6-foot-2 forward added another wrinkle to Illinois’ ball-screen offense. “She’s done a great job on that,” Illini coach Shauna Green said of Bostic. “I’d love to take credit for that, but that’s just her being in such a comfort with everything we do.
That’s what’s fun about these guys for me is we’ve been together so long ...
they’re just making plays that they’re just doing because they know each other, they can read each other so well. So, some of the passes she made in the first half were unbelievable and that was just her being a (playmaker). Her taking advantage of how they were playing.
I give all the credit to her on that.” For her part, Bostic admitted that some of the success she had distributing the ball was matchup-specific to the Wildcats. But Bostic was also quick to credit how good the Illini were at creating offense for each other.
“I thought we had a focus of setting really good screens this game,” Bostic said. “Berry (Wallace) was wide open on a layup, and (Genesis Bryant) set a really good back screen for her. We made more of a focus of that and just being more crisp with our stuff.
Usually, when we get loose with stuff, we don’t really get anything and we’re in the five seconds on the shot clock kind of thing. Overall, I felt like I needed to do whatever my team needed me to do.” Three-point shooting turnaround The switch has been evident throughout Big Ten play.
But it’s really shown up since the start of the new year. Illinois has gone from being one of the Big Ten’s worst three-point shooting teams during nonconference play to ranking third in the Big Ten in conference-only games, with the Illini shooting 37.8 percent from beyond the arc.
Only Indiana (39.9 percent) and Washington (38.9) have been more successful three-point shooting teams since Big Ten play began in mid-December.
That success has not just been at the offensive end, either. Illinois also ranks third in Big Ten-only games in three-point shooting defense, with the Illini holding opponents to only 29.6 shooting in league games.
So, what’s changed for Illinois? It started during the Christmas break. “We got a lot of reps in,” said Bostic, who is 7 of 23 on her three-point attempts this season. “It was nice.
You don’t have anything but basketball, and we were in recovering and we were in getting shots, and it’s just the confidence thing, too. I think people initially weren’t really hitting in the beginning of the season. So, I feel like people backed off and it gave us time to get our shots, and now, people don’t know whether to come out on us.
” Wallace also pointed out on Thursday night the matchup challenges Illinois has presented to opponents. “I know for (Bryant), she was saying she can drive and shoot it,” the freshman forward said. “So, just making them have to guard our versatility and same for me.
Our bigs set really good screens for us, so that’s been big to get more open shots and time to get your shot up.” Badgers ‘high-low you to death’ It wasn’t just Serah Williams that hurt Illinois the last time the two teams played. Ronnie Porter played a big role in Wisconsin’s 67-61 win in Champaign, with the former walk-off guard nearly producing a triple-double by finishing with 14 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
That Porter and Williams are both back for coach Marisa Moseley, and that the Badgers’ fourth-year coach added a transfer in Carter McCray — who was the Horizon League Freshman of the Year at Northern Kentucky before joining Wisconsin — has given the Badgers another element. “Rebounding is going to be key,” Green said, “and Serah Williams, she’s such an elite scorer. So, they do a ton of high-low stuff.
...
They high-low you to death. And high-lows, that’s hard. It’s hard to bring doubles with the high-low.
McCray is really good working from that high-low post area. They have more shooters. They definitely have more shooters on the perimeter than Northwestern did.
That’s where it presents a lot of problems, because can you double? Can you not? We have our work cut out, but that’s the Big Ten for you.” It’s how effective Caileigh Walsh was, especially in the second half for Northwestern on Thursday night, that creates something for the Illini to clean up before playing Wisconsin. Walsh “got on a heater,” Green said, in the second half as the Wildcats tried to comeback from a 20-point halftime deficit, with the 6-3 senior forward ending up with a team-high 17 points.
That corresponded with the Illini trying to rest Bostic — a futile effort after Northwestern cut into its deficit — in the third quarter. The News-Gazette’s Pick Illinois 71, Wisconsin 64 This might not be the straightforward matchup that it looks like on paper, at least if you take a cursory glance at the Badgers’ Big Ten record and stop there. Just ask Michigan.
Wisconsin has been a much different team at the Kohl Center, with an 8-4 home record compared to a 1-7 mark away from Madison. A prime example of that inconsistency? Back-to-back games where the Badgers won 82-75 against Michigan at home on Jan. 29 and followed that up with an 84-71 loss at Purdue this past Sunday.
Still, the Illini have been a good road team with a 5-2 record away from State Farm Center and have the clear edge in momentum right now. (News-Gazette prediction record: 16-7).
