The University of Illinois women’s basketball team (16-8, 6-7) lost to the University of Southern California (15-9, 7-6) 70-62 after failing to rally from a 19-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter.
For the first time under Head Coach Shauna Green, Illinois sold out State Farm Center with 15,544 tickets sold. This feat makes it the largest attendance for women’s basketball in the Big Ten this season.
Takeaways
Illinois: This was another game where the Illini started slow from the tipoff. After not making their first six shots of the game, Illinois found themselves down by 11 points midway through the first quarter. While Illinois tried to keep up with USC offensively, the Illini started to give up layups as the USC lead grew to 19 points in the fourth quarter.
Illinois gradually chipped away at the lead to get within single digits of USC before time ran out. Freshman guard Destiny Jackson led Illinois with 17 points and a career-high eight steals. Freshman forward Cearah Parchment had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
USC: USC freshman guard Jazzy Davidson scored a career-high 27 points and eight assists playing the entire game. The Trojans applied pressure on the Illini early and took advantage of its offensive wins when Illinois was unable to make their shots.
In the fourth quarter, Illinois started to play full-court offense, and Davidson took charge to help lead her team to the win.
Key moment
For the first time since 1999, Illinois Women’s basketball team sold out State Farm Center in honor of this week’s National Girls & Women in Sports Day. They are now one of four women’s teams in the NCAA to have multiple games of 14,000+ tickets sold for a game.
This is the first back-to-back season with over 80,000 fans in attendance this season. The last time the team was achieved was back in the 1999-2000 season.
Key Stat
Destiny Jackson recorded eight steals, a career high for the freshman, two steals short of the program record. This brings Jackson to 40 total steals so far into the season.
Up Next
The Fighting Illini Women’s Basketball team will host Wisconsin at State Farm Center on Wednesday at 6 PM.