Illinois

Women’s basketball Game 2 preview: Marquette at Illinois, 7 p.m. Sunday

Published

1 year ago

November 9, 2024

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Women’s basketball Game 2 preview: Marquette at Illinois, 7 p.m. Sunday

Lineups

Illinois (1-0)

Starters

P Name Yr. Ht. PPG Hometown

G Makira Cook Sr. 5-6 20.0 Cincinnati

G Genesis Bryant Sr. 5-6 8.0 Jonesboro, Ga.

G Adalia McKenzie Sr. 5-10 20.0 Brooklyn Park, Minn.

F Brynn Shoup-Hill Sr. 6-3 5.0 Goshen, Ind.

F Kendall Bostic Sr. 6-2 18.0 Kokomo, Ind.

➜ FYI: Bryant, who played her 100th career game in Thursday night’s 83-74 home upset of No. 19 Florida State, was largely ineffective until late against the Seminoles. The fifth-year senior Bryant played only 22 minutes — the fewest of the five Illini starters — and didn’t make a shot attempt until the fourth quarter with six of the guard’s eight points coming in the final 10 minutes. Bryant ended up 1 of 5 from the floor after finishing 1 of 3 shooting in Illinois’ lone exhibition game against Lewis on Nov. 1.

Off the bench

P Name Yr. Ht. PPG Hometown

G Gretchen Dolan So. 5-11 11.0 Buffalo, N.Y.

F Berry Wallace Fr. 6-1 0.0 Pickerington, Ohio

G Jasmine Brown-Hagger So. 5-9 1.0 Shorewood

Marquette (0-1)

Starters

P Name Yr. Ht. PPG Hometown

G Olivia Porter Jr. 5-8 14.0 Chapel Hill, N.C.

G Halle Vice So. 6-1 0.0 Bettendorf, Iowa

G Lee Volker Sr. 6-1 10.0 Purcellville, Va.

F Skylar Forbes So. 6-3 11.0 Markham, Ontario

F Jada Bediako So. 6-3 4.0 Brampton, Ontario

➜ FYI: Porter was one of six transfers first-year coach Cara Consuegra brought in during the offseason with the junior guard following her coach from Charlotte to Marquette after Porter started every game for the 49ers last season, with Charlotte finishing 22-10 and making the NCAA tournament. Jaidynn Mason (Southern Illinois), Kennedi Perkins (Syracuse), Ayuen Akot (Frank Phillips College), Aryelle Stevens (Gulf Coast State College) and Bediako (Georgia Tech) were also among the transfer additions.

Off the bench

P Name Yr. Ht. PPG Hometown

G Bridget Utberg Jr. 5-5 3.0 Canton, Ga.

F Aryelle Stevens Jr. 6-1 2.0 Pearland, Texas

G Kennedi Perkins Jr. 5-6 2.0 Bolingbrook

Details

➜ Site: State Farm Center (15,544); Champaign.

➜ TV: Jason Ross Jr. (play-by-play) and Shimmy Gray-Miller (analysis) will have the call on BTN.

➜ Radio: Mike Koon will have the call on WDWS 1400-AM and 93.9-FM.

➜ Series: Marquette leads 6-2.

➜ Last meeting: Marquette won 71-67 on Nov. 11, 2023, in Milwaukee.

➜ FYI: That four-point win for the Golden Eagles saw Liza Karlen go off for a game-high 22 points and Jordan King add 19 points as Illinois played without Makira Cook because of a concussion. But neither player is back at Marquette this season. King exhausted her eligibility and Karlen transferred to Notre Dame.

Beat writer Joe Vozzelli’s storylines

Taking accountability as starters

A major talking point throughout the offseason for Illinois was fixing what had troubled the Illini last winter: Poor starts to games. Particularly in Big Ten play. So much so that Illinois coach Shauna Green didn’t just address it in the practice gym with different drills last season, but through visualization techniques, as well. Still, fifth-year senior Kendall Bostic made it clear where the responsibility lies to improve how Illinois starts games: On the players.

“The starters had a meeting earlier this week and just kind of talked about what we needed to do,” Bostic said. “In the end, it’s on us. We’re the ones that go out and start the game and essentially, when the hole is dug, it’s because we dug it ourselves.”

Getting to the rim, and finishing

Adalia McKenzie‘s ability to beat defenders off the bounce on straight-line drives is one of the 5-foot-10 guard’s best skill sets. But finishing at the rim has been an issue for the Illinois senior guard. But the Illini’s 83-74 win against Florida State on Thursday night featured McKenzie both driving and finishing. The highlight of the 20 points she scored came in the third quarter when McKenzie hung in the air and finished through contact from Seminoles guard Carla Viegas.

“I would just thank my teammates and coaches, them always putting confidence in me, and just work,” McKenzie said of showing more strength at the rim so far this season. “Actually just working on doing layups and being aggressive in practice.”

A banner night is in the plans

Sunday night will feature a banner celebration for Illinois before it tips off against Marquette. A first of sorts. The Illini will have a pregame ceremony, a banner unveiling and a banner raising to recognize the WBIT championship the program won last spring.

Carrying the momentum from how Illinois finished last season and continuing to build off that is top of mind for a veteran Illini team.

“Where the program started to where it is now, I think it’s absolutely insane,” Bostic said. “I’m really proud of everyone who has believed in this program, came in and put the work in. We have put a ton of work into everything, and the coaches have come in and changed our system. They got us to buy-in, and we bought into it. I’m just really proud of everybody across the board. It’s so cool to be a part of the foundation that turned Illinois around.”

The News-Gazette’s Pick

Illinois 75, Marquette 65

Now, comes a new test for the Illini: How does Illinois handle a big season-opening win? Avoiding a letdown on Sunday night after the impressive victory against Florida State is critical. Especially with the Golden Eagles, who lost 57-50 at UCF in their opener, still trying to find themselves after an offseason coaching change and with a new-look roster. (News-Gazette prediction record: 0-1).

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Illinois

Keaton Wagler scored 19 points and No. 16 Illinois holds off No. 19 Iowa in 75-69 victory

Published

3 hours ago

January 12, 2026

Press Room

Keaton Wagler scored 19 points and No. 16 Illinois holds off No. 19 Iowa in 75-69 victory

Keaton Wagler scored 19 points, Andrej Stojakovic and Kylan Boswell each had 17 and No. 16 Illinois continued to win on the road in the Big Ten Conference, holding off No. 19 Iowa 75-69 on Sunday. The Illini (13-3, 4-1) won their fifth consecutive game and stayed tied for third place in the conference. Three of Illinois’ wins in conference play have come on the road — the Illini also won at Ohio State and Penn State.

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Illinois

Iowa takes a tough Bennett Stirtz lesson in Illinois loss | Leistikow

Published

15 hours ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Iowa takes a tough Bennett Stirtz lesson in Illinois loss | Leistikow

IOWA CITY — For the third consecutive game, Mr. Forty Minutes — Iowa basketball’s Bennett Stirtz — found himself in foul trouble.

The Hawkeye senior thought he drew a charge, but officials called him for a block with 11 minutes, 36 seconds to go against No. 16 Illinois. And so, with four fouls, Iowa basketball coach Ben McCollum brought his star point guard to the bench with his team down 14 points.

After a quick 3, Illinois’ lead was up to 58-41. Not a thing was going right for Iowa.

But instead of wilting, Stirtz’s absence actually gave Iowa a lift.

Not because Iowa is a better team without its star. But because his supporting cast stopped looking for Stirtz to save Iowa — and looked for one another.

That, above all other things, should be the takeaway from what became No. 19 Iowa’s 75-69 loss to No. 16 Illinois on Jan. 11.

With Stirtz out, the 13,559 fans at Carver-Hawkeye Arena continued to match Iowa’s newfound energy. Tavion Banks soared through the air for a dunk to cut Illinois’ lead to 62-55. Tate Sage delivered a back-door cut and dunk to make it 62-57.

Stirtz waved his arms into the air from the Iowa bench as the noise came to a crescendo.

“We changed from playing with fear to fighting,” Stirtz would say afterward. “I’m proud of the guys for that.”

The Hawkeyes fell to 12-4 overall, 2-3 in the Big Ten Conference with a daunting trip to No. 5 Purdue (15-1, 5-0) on Jan. 14. This was their first home loss and first two-game losing streak of the McCollum era. A quick 21-5 deficit made this an uphill climb throughout.

“You’ve got to come ready,” McCollum said. “Not today.”

Video: Ben McCollum reacts to Iowa basketball’s loss to Illinois

Ben McCollum meets with media after Iowa basketball’s 75-69 loss to Illinois.

And that’s two straight games in which Iowa was completely flat at the beginning — and then played better without Stirtz for a stretch. The same thing happened in the first half at Minnesota, too, where Stirtz got two fouls and his teammates started playing better and even took the lead.

Sage scored six points in the Stirtz-less run against Illinois; Cooper Koch had eight, including two 3-pointers. What woke up Iowa?

“Cutting,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “I thought Sage was tremendous in his cutting.”

In the 7:05 that Stirtz missed on Sunday, the Hawkeyes officially outscored Illinois (13-3, 4-1) by an 18-10 margin. He returned with Iowa down, 65-59, and 4:31 left.

“No, he’s not the problem,” McCollum said, answering a question about what fans might be thinking. “It’s that the floor shrinks when he comes off screens, and we’re not doing a good job of getting to the secondary actions after that.”

Let’s pause here for a little extra explanation.

In other words, in McCollum’s eyes, when Stirtz is drawing so much attention, his four teammates on the floor need to make opponents pay.

Stirtz did have six assists to go with this 12 points against Illinois, but he shot 5-for-17 from the floor, with a lot of those misses being forced attempts — especially late.

Iowa needs to be able to win without Stirtz being at his absolute best. And he certainly wasn’t his best Sunday. Stirtz missed a wide-open layup with 37 seconds that could’ve cut the gap to 71-69.

“Sometimes when you have a player of his caliber, you search for him a little bit too much, and it doesn’t naturally flow,” McCollum said. “And I think we probably searched for him too much, and then when you search for him, then all five guys shrink.”

McCollum elaborated by describing how Illinois puts five elite players on the floor, complimenting how they each make one another better at what they do.

“Those guys benefit from each other, if that makes sense, and so we’re not benefiting from each other,” McCollum said. “… Leverage each other, not just leverage one person. And that’s partly me, too, I’ve got to do a better job of, ‘OK, why is that not working?’ We will. We’re getting there.”

Stirtz was sick earlier this week at Minnesota, when he went scoreless in the first half but put up 21 points in the second in a 70-67 loss.

He is taking a lot on his shoulders right now, and defenses are giving him that kind of attention, too.

“They were throwing everyone at me,” Stirtz said.

Opponents know what they need to do to stop Iowa right now: Throw the kitchen sink at Stirtz.

“He’s really good,” Underwood said. “You’re not going to take everything away from him. More importantly, it’s making him guard the other end and making him work (on defense). Matchup-hunting was good for us, in this one.”

There you go, Ben McCollum and Hawkeye fans. Underwood gave you the general script on how to suffocate Iowa. Make Stirtz work hard on both ends of the floor, and maybe he’ll reach here and there on defense and get into foul trouble.

Minnesota capitalized on it. So did Illinois. It’s time for Iowa to adjust.

Now, this was a really good Illinois team. This was hardly an embarrassing Iowa loss.

But, as McCollum voiced in the 66-62 loss at Iowa State a month ago, he isn’t interested in moral victories like two straight comebacks that barely fell short.

Video: Cooper Koch on why Iowa got off to slow start vs. Illinois

Cooper Koch meets with media after Iowa basketball’s 75-69 loss to Illinois.

The crystalized lesson that the Hawkeyes must take from this loss is to take what they did without Stirtz … and play like that with Stirtz.

Then, this team can be really good, an NCAA Tournament team and maybe a threat to make a run.

Until they figure that out, frustrating losses will continue to add up. The Big Ten is relentless. After the Purdue trip comes a Jan. 17 visit to Indiana. Iowa could be 2-5 in conference play in just six days if it doesn’t pull off an upset.

McCollum did tweak his second-half lineup, looking for a spark. Starting center Cam Manyawu didn’t play a minute after halftime. Sage, a freshman, played all 20 second-half minutes.

Getting Banks back to full health will help. McCollum said the forward (who was Iowa’s best player against Illinois with 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists) lost 8-10 pounds over the past few days with an illness. Banks was replaced by Alvaro Folgueiras (eight points, eight rebounds) in the starting lineup.

Iowa is only 25% of the way through the conference season. But it needs to learn these lessons quickly and not let them linger, like they did in both games this past week.

“We’ve got to change something, because something’s not working,” Stirtz said. “It’s been a couple games where we haven’t started out with a lot of energy. It’s definitely going to need to change, and we’re going to need to it for the full 40.”

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 31 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.

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Illinois

Where to watch Iowa basketball vs. Illinois today: TV channel, time

Published

1 day ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Where to watch Iowa basketball vs. Illinois today: TV channel, time

Iowa basketball (12-3, 2-2 Big Ten) welcomes in No. 16 Illinois (12-3, 3-1 Big Ten) to Carver-Hawkeye Arena in a top-25 conference tilt.

The 19th-ranked Hawkeyes are looking to get the taste of a frustrating road loss at Minnesota out of their mouths. Iowa trailed by as many as 14, but rallied back to take the lead in the game’s final two minutes. The Golden Gophers hit a go-ahead 3-pointer from Jaylen Crocker-Johnson and then watched as a series of potential game-tying Iowa threes wouldn’t drop in a final, frantic sequence from Williams Arena.

Illinois enters winners of four straight and six of their past seven. The Illini rolled past Rutgers on Thursday, 81-55.

Watch Iowa vs. Illinois

Iowa owns a 57-24 all-time record against Illinois in Iowa City, though the Illini have owned the series of late. Illinois has won four straight over Iowa and nine of the past 10. That stretch of success from the Illini comes on the heels of a five-game Iowa win streak in the series from 2018-20.

As tipoff approaches, here’s how and when Hawkeye fans can watch Iowa basketball vs. Illinois:

How to watch Iowa basketball vs. Illinois

TV: Fox

Tipoff Time: 11 a.m.

Iowa battles Illinois on Fox in its “Gold Out” game from Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Jason Benetti (play-by-play) will be joined by Steve Smith (color).

How to stream Iowa basketball vs. Illinois

Hawkeye fans can stream Iowa basketball vs. Illinois with Fubo, which offers a free trial to first-time subscribers.

Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Josh on X: @JoshOnHawks

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