Illinois game thread
- Thread starter MichaelRR
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33-22 Purdue at the half. While some fans here don't appreciate her, the announcers cannot stop talking about how special Janae Terry's game is. Madison is 0-6 including at least 2 point blank layups nearly uncontested. Harper and Steveson lead Purdue with 8 each, but Caitlyn has 2 fouls. Mila played well in relief of Caitlyn, Smith and Jones each have 2 and have been stout on defense.
Nice first half. Janae Terry playing really well. The Purdue zone has Illinois frustrated so far.
Illinois made the mistake early of playing way off Terry and that combined with the steal and breakaway has her rolling against her old team. Interesting game for Bostic, she is playing against THREE former teammates, and only one of them in college.
52-44 Purdue at the end of 3rd quarter. Stevenson with 12, Harper with 11 but 3 fouls, and Madison with 10. Terry with 11 assists and 6 rebounds.
That is one tough freshman / MA Stevenson is gutsy! I’m not sure I could navigate a set of stairs with a mask on, let alone play basketball. She’s amazing
She was awful at UNeb with it, but she only received it just before the game and had not gotten to practice in it. Tonight you can see she is not letting it bother her at all. Harper fumbling the ball robbed Mary Ashley of an assist. I am amused that none of the announcers have mentioned that the Laydens and Bostic were teammates at Northwestern in High School.
Get some damn rebounds! This team isn’t talented, seems like some are standing in concrete. Thankfully, it looks like they’re going to pull it out. Stevenson and Terry are Purdue’s best tonight, big shot hit by Harper. Coach must not have any faith in the reserves, not going to get better by sitting on the bench all game, crazy letting players play every minute.
Jones and Stevenson are out there, the rest were unranked or injured and are not ready for this level of a game yet. They will need more time and development.
FINAL 77-72 Purdue. Stevenson with new career high 25. Ellis just had a really rough night, and the bench was not much help, but Caitlyn Harper had a pretty good game with 16 points, but failure to rebound nearly cost us this game and needs to be a massive point of emphasis in the off season with Terry graduating and leaving us even weaker in the rebounding department.
Brutal watch, tough watching this when you watch the men play. The lack of rebounding was ridiculous.
Good team win. They really needed this one. Mary Ashley with the best game of her career so far....25 points and 9 boards. Janae Terry with a near triple double. Caitlyn with 16 points and the biggest three pointer of the season so far. Madison chipped in with 14.
They got a little tight there in the 4th but they pulled it out and that's what matters. It has to help their confidence.
They got a little tight there in the 4th but they pulled it out and that's what matters. It has to help their confidence.
I totally disagree....
I enjoyed the game. Was it beautiful basketball?....no, of course not.....but I was really into the game. When Caitlyn Harper hit that three.....I came off the couch. Scared my cat. Lol.
Haven’t looked at the stats, so I’m not sure how many minutes Rashunda Jones got tonight but it didn’t seem like as much as in previous games.
JT and MA both just tough tough tough. Happy they got the win. Much needed.
Crowd seemed decent too which is really nice considering the string of losses coming into this game.
JT and MA both just tough tough tough. Happy they got the win. Much needed.
Crowd seemed decent too which is really nice considering the string of losses coming into this game.
Jones got 13 minutes, so about her norm. Terry played all 45 minutes, and Madison and Ellis both over 40 minutes did not leave many minutes for Jones (13) and Smith (9) most of which came because of Caitlyn sitting 16 minutes with foul trouble. Caitlyn has to rebound though, 29 minutes and zero rebounds is a big problem, same with Ellis going 2-12 from the field.
Russ, the last 5 minutes of regulation were brutal, Purdue probably because they were gassed couldn’t get a rebound, nearly cost them the game. I’m not blaming the girls but their lack of depth was glaring. Terry played a nice game, she shouldn’t be playing the entire 45 minutes, not fair to her really. I actually thought Smith in her 8 minutes and Reynolds when she played looked ok, in a season where you’re not going anywhere it would be nice to see a few more minutes from the reserves.
The ending of that 4th quarter sours a bit of this win but I guess when you don't win in a month you shouldn't complain too much haha, but I wanted to point out some negative then finish with positives.
Negatives -
4th quarter finish as mentioned above, but specifically when we had the ball, tie game, 9.6 seconds left. We come out of the time out and we had the ball in the right person's hands(Terry). Unfortunately the senior shoots it way too early, illinois gets the rebound with 3 secs left but we're lucky they didn't call a timeout to advance the ball.
I also thought jones could of gotten a little more run tonight, specifically for Ellis. I think it was mentioned Jones got lost a couple times on D but I thought she could of helped the offense down the stretch when we got stagnant. Love Ellis's energy and fight, and she came down with a couple key rebounds and tie ups, but she just didn't have it offensively tonight.
Positives -
Mila continues to have some moments and may be our best charge taker on the team(Ellis has a knack for this too.)
Terry was huge obviously (minus early shot mentioned above). Really going to miss her rebounding next season.(I think Amiyah and Poole can fill in for her playmaking/passing we lose)
Clutch shot by Harper, really effective in the post, especially when she doesnt hesitate. When she's quick and decisive down there, she's a tough cover.
As Russ mentioned, hopefully we can gain some confidence from this win and finish strong going into the BTT.
Negatives -
4th quarter finish as mentioned above, but specifically when we had the ball, tie game, 9.6 seconds left. We come out of the time out and we had the ball in the right person's hands(Terry). Unfortunately the senior shoots it way too early, illinois gets the rebound with 3 secs left but we're lucky they didn't call a timeout to advance the ball.
I also thought jones could of gotten a little more run tonight, specifically for Ellis. I think it was mentioned Jones got lost a couple times on D but I thought she could of helped the offense down the stretch when we got stagnant. Love Ellis's energy and fight, and she came down with a couple key rebounds and tie ups, but she just didn't have it offensively tonight.
Positives -
Mila continues to have some moments and may be our best charge taker on the team(Ellis has a knack for this too.)
Terry was huge obviously (minus early shot mentioned above). Really going to miss her rebounding next season.(I think Amiyah and Poole can fill in for her playmaking/passing we lose)
Clutch shot by Harper, really effective in the post, especially when she doesnt hesitate. When she's quick and decisive down there, she's a tough cover.
As Russ mentioned, hopefully we can gain some confidence from this win and finish strong going into the BTT.
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Wow, yeah I know she's never been a great rebounder, but a goose egg in 29 minutes is pretty rare, especially from a post player.
I thought Mila looked like a player, for me that was the oddest thing of the night, Coach must not have much confidence in her to not play her, that or perhaps she’s still injured. Also, Jones did need to play more minutes, 13 in a 45 minute game is low, Smith actually looked ok as well, 9 minutes shows she’s in the doghouse.
All three missed defensive assignments badly in Illinois big run. Mila has to get rebounds to stay on the floor since she is not yet a scorer, and she didn't. Bostic (24 pts and 15 rbs)blew past her to get to the glass like Mila was glued to the floor.
Yeah for me I think CKG sensed a win and wanted to ride with her experienced/trusted players. Smith has looked better in the last two games but as we all know, can be a bit of enigma so I can't blame CKG for only giving her 9 minutes, especially in a close game. Hopefully she learns to trust the younger players more down the stretch because they do need some of these learning experiences in tight games to grow.
I saw that Michael, however, at the end of regulation time players were missing assignments all over the place, probably because they were gassed. I thought she looked pretty decent, as you’ve stated, good luck next year, bench players must not show much to get no time in a 3-8 Big Ten season in a 45 minute game.
It is nice to get a win. We needed to get past that loss streak hump. That said, I have to admit I thought we were going to blow this at the end of the 4th and in overtime. I'm glad I was wrong, but we have seen it all with this team. Go Boilers!
I don't think that the team was gassed, I think they could not match Illinois frenetic energy and folded. Luckily they regrouped about 2 minutes into ot and pulled the win out. However this game makes me think we only have one win left in us for the season, at home to Northwestern.
Unranked freshmen usually aren't ready to play until sophmore or junior year in women's ball. The two ranked players that are available are playing significant minutes. Amiyah and Poole will be expected to vie for starters minutes next year. Swanson should be ready to play a lot more off the bench. The test are probably another year away from being ready for Big Ten regular play. Now, two of the four other posts next season will have to be ready to contribute to go along with MA next season, and my biggest hope is Puryear can defend, rebound and get a couple putbacks a game next season.
Not for Caitlyn, she went for zero rebounds against MSU just a couple games ago also, and they did not even play a post.
