CHAMPAIGN, IL- Purdue’s Jeanae Terry had a double double with 10 points and 14 rebounds in the Illinois 62-52 loss to the Purdue Boilermakers.
Purdue was in control of the game starting from the tip-off, and went into the half with a comfortable lead of 35-25. Illinois narrowed the deficit to just five points at the beginning of the second half, but didn’t get any closer as the Purdue defense controlled the game.
Makira Cook led the Illini with 19 points on 8-24 shooting. Genesis Bryant added 11 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Although Illinois had better rebounding and three point statistics, Purdue beat Illinois in both categories.
Physicality in the Paint
Despite the Illini’s size advantage, Purdue dominated the paint not only with points but also with rebounding. Caitlyn Harper went to work in the, scoring 10 points with four rebounds. Abbey Ellis added 16 points, and 5’11” Jeanae Terry dominated the glass, leading the Boilermakers with 14 rebounds.
Illinois was outrebounded 40-31, even with their conference leading rebound margin of +8.8. Kendall Bostic collected 10 rebounds for the Illini, allowing her matchup of Caitlyn Harper four rebounds.
“They were killing us in paint points in that first half…,” Shauna Green said. “They kind of bullied us in everything tonight.”
Illinois struggled to find shots in the paint, going 8-17 on layups. Purdue was 8-13 on layups going into the half, finishing the game at 14-22.
“I can handle a loss if we play with this program’s core values, and we play hard and we fight and defend…,” Green said. “We just didn’t have any of those characteristics tonight.”
Forced to take contested threes
Although Illinois led the big ten in three point percentage going into the game, the Boilermaker defense held the Illini to just four threes compared to their average of 7.6 per game.
Genesis Bryant, the team’s leading three point shooter, went 1-7 from deep and made her only three of the game with just 47 seconds left. Makira Cook was 1-8 on threes.
“We jacked threes- that’s not us,” Green said. “We’re a really good three point shooting team but we don’t take that many threes.”
Purdue also struggled from deep, going 3-18 on threes, but made up for it with their midrange and paint scoring.
Quick Hits:
* Illinois committed 14 personal fouls while Purdue had 13. The Illini had more chances at the line, going 10-14 from the stripe with Brynn Shoup-Hill going 3-5. Purdue went 5-6 from the line with all six shots coming within the last minute.
* Genesis Bryant had three steals, her season high.
* Illinois had 11 steals in total which was its second highest of the year, only to the Wisconsin game (12
