The women’s Illinois basketball team played a solid first 20 minutes in the NCAA tournament.
Creighton is a good team, but the Illini are clearly up for the challenge. Despite missing some key players, Illinois played well and looked good, especially on the defensive end of the court.
The Bluejays did hit a few big shots down the stretch, but Illinois still has a 31-26 lead heading into the halftime break.
Here is the Illinois basketball good and bad from the first half against the Creighton Bluejays
Good
- Illinois locked down the perimeter
The Illinois defense continued to play extremely well in the first half against Creighton. We already had one of the best defenses in the country, but the Illini shut down the Bluejays from deep.
Creighton is a team that shoots 36.7% from three-point range for the season, and they make 9.1 three-pointers in each game. In the first half, Creighton was only 3-of-10 from three-point range, which is 30%. Illinois was suffocating out on the perimeter, and our switches were crisp. We also had great communication. These factors held Creighton’s shooters in check.
- Genesis Bryant was hitting from deep
Illinois needed Genesis Bryant to be on fire in the first half. Creighton has a lot of firepower and isn’t going to go away easily, so having Bryant playing well is huge.
Bryant led the Illini off with a big three-pointer. She finished the first half with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the floor and 2-of-3 from three-point range. She is going to need to keep up the pace in the second half too.
- The Illini dominated the glass
I have been extremely impressed with Illinois’ ability to rebound the basketball this season. To make up for the shallow roster, we need to get as many chances at the basket as possible.
Illinois continued the glass dominance in the first half. We pulled down 22 rebounds to Creighton’s 13 rebounds. Kendall Bostic was a monster, tallying 12 rebounds in the first 20 minutes of action.
Bad
- Illinois is losing the turnover battle
It was not a clean first half of action for the Illini. While we have the 31-26 lead at the half, this program is also getting crushed in the turnover department.
Illinois got sloppy with the basketball in the second quarter. Overall, we had eight turnovers in the first half while Creighton only had four turnovers. Keeping control of the basketball is going to be extremely important in the second half of this game.