Strong guard play helps Illini end Florida trip on high note
Dec. 22—WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Illinois women's basketball team found itself in a tight game entering the fourth quarter.
That the Illini delivered a 23-point final quarter allowed Shauna Green's team to at least return home with one win from its Florida trip.
A much-needed win, too, for Illinois.
After a buzzer-beating loss to Arkansas just over 24 hours earlier, the Illini got back in the win column with a hard-fought 81-71 victory against UTEP in their nonconference finale on Thursday afternoon on Massimino Court at the Student Life Center on the Keiser University campus during the West Palm Beach Classic.
A win that saw Illinois (6-5) put an end to a three-game losing streak.
The Illini placed four players in double figures with Adalia McKenzie producing a team-high 19 points. Makira Cook added 17 points, nine assists and two rebounds, while Genesis Bryant finished with 17 points, five assists and five rebounds in playing the full 40 minutes. Kendall Bostic followed with 10 points and six rebounds.
Green made a change to her starting five for the 10-point win against the Miners (4-8) with Bostic and Camille Hobby starting together for the first time all season.
Hobby, a North Carolina State transfer added during the offseason, started in place of Brynn Shoup-Hill, who had been in the starting five for all 38 games she played in as an Illini prior to Thursday's game.
Starting Bostic and Hobby together didn't really make all that much of a difference against UTEP. It did see Hobby log 23 minutes, her most since coming off the bench for 26 minutes in a season-high scoring effort for Hobby with 18 points in Illinois' 71-67 loss at Marquette on Nov. 11. Hobby, in her first start with the Illini, netted seven points and five rebounds.
Illinois took a 34-31 lead into the locker room at half. But the Miners put together a 25-point third quarter, including scoring eight of the final nine points in the 10-minute quarter, to make it a 58-56 game at the start of the fourth.
That's when Bryant, Cook and McKenzie took charge. The Illini's starting backcourt trio accounted for 16 of the team's 23 points in the final quarter to help Illinois clinch the nonconference victory.
The Miners, who shot 54.9 percent from the field, received a game-high 20 points from senior forward Jane Asinde. After a 172-game streak of at least one made three-pointer ended in the 60-59 loss to Arkansas on Wednesday, the Illini connected for seven three-pointers (on 18 attempts) on Thursday.
"We just made plays (against UTEP) in timely fashion, where (against Arkansas), the ball just didn't bounce in, and if it bounced in one more time, we win," Green said. "We hit some big (three-pointers) late. Makira was big time down the stretch hitting her pull-ups that she's been hitting. It was good. We got two really competitive games down here that'll help us no doubt going into conference play after Christmas."
Illinois has an extended break for the holidays before returning to Big Ten play for the rest of the regular season (17 games), starting with a Dec. 31 New Year's Eve matchup against No. 16 Indiana (9-1) in Bloomington, Ind.
