Apr. 2—INDIANAPOLIS — Glimpses of this version of the Illinois women’s basketball team appeared all season.
The upset win against Indiana at home in late February. A redeeming win at Michigan after an early-season blowout loss to the Wolverines. A comeback win against Nebraska in the regular-season finale.
But sustaining that success during consecutive games was the issue.
The Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament has created a different story for the Illini.
Four wins in a row in late March and early April. For the first time all season. And Illinois will now play for a championship at the inaugural event.
Makira Cook, Genesis Bryant, Adalia McKenzie and Camille Hobby all reached double figures, and Illinois cruised to an 81-58 semifinal win against Washington State in front of 1,748 fans on Monday night at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.
“Really proud of these guys,” Illinois coach Shauna Green said. “How they have taken on this tournament — their approach, their mindset, our togetherness, how connected we are — it’s really been fun to watch as a coach. It shows what you can do when you continue to believe and you continue to stay together as a team. This team deserves it. We’re not satisfied, though, yet. We had one goal when we were fortunate enough to be invited into this tournament: We said we wanted to go 1-0 five times, and we have one more.”
That one more is Wednesday night in the championship game against Villanova (22-12) back in Indianapolis at Hinkle Fieldhouse, with the Wildcats reaching the final after a 58-53 semifinal win against Penn State earlier on Monday. Villanova has held all four of its WBIT opponents to fewer than 60 points with earlier wins against VCU, Virginia and Saint Joseph’s before holding on to beat the Nittany Lions.
Illinois (18-15) jumped Washington State (21-15) from the start, and Cook was instrumental in the wire-to-wire victory.
The senior guard had nine points in the opening 10 minutes as the Illini led 23-14 at the end of the first quarter. Cook finished with 20 points on 8 of 13 shooting for the Illini, who shot 54.0 percent from the field.
“It was really fun,” Cook said. “Like Coach Green said, we have been preparing really hard. It was just a translation from how practices have been for honestly the last three weeks. We all were just clicking with each other. We knew where each other was going to be, so it was just fun.
“We executed what we wanted to do, which one of them was give a little pressure, so we bought into it. We bought into our pressure defense a while ago. Once we’re on the same page, we just go with it.”
Illinois forced the Cougars into 18 turnovers and scored 22 points off them to pull ahead 42-28 at halftime and 62-45 through three quarters.
The Illini outscored Washington State in all four quarters in the first-ever meeting between both programs.
Green said the Illini’s ability to improve defensively late in the season is a key reason for the run they’re on.
“I tried everything and they didn’t want to really do (our press defense), and now they really like it,” Green said. “Now in practice, they’re the ones calling it out. … We got some steals. We don’t do it to every team, but it was something that worked for us, and I thought it was really big (Monday night) and also gets us going and gets us playing really, really hard. But we can’t have success unless they want to do it, and they have been wanting to do it the past month.”
The WBIT has given Illinois a fresh start after a regular season did not live up to increased preseason expectations.
Illinois has leaned into its experienced players during its WBIT run. It wasn’t just Cook on Monday night.
Bryant delivered 18 points, surpassing 1,000 for her college career. She has 935 of those points in two seasons at Illinois after only scoring 79 in two seasons at North Carolina State.
McKenzie added 14 points to continue a standout tournament for the junior guard, while Hobby produced 12 points and eight rebounds.
Hobby, another N.C. State transfer like Bryant, now has one final game left in her college career.
And a chance to end it all with a win.
“To have an opportunity to play for a championship is amazing,” Hobby said. “Especially to do it with my teammates. We obviously have had a lot of ups and downs this season, but it’s not really how you start, it’s how you finish. We have a great opportunity to take on Villanova, so hopefully we’ll able to finish it there.”
