It’s the transitive law of athletics: Penn State dominates Northwestern, Illinois defeats Penn State and — surprise — the Fighting Illini visit Welsh-Ryan Arena Tuesday night and make NU look like a team still working on the bounce pass.
Simply put, the Cats were out-fundamentaled in an 88-65 loss, their fourth-straight Big Ten defeat, in front of 743 fans — most of them wearing Illini orange.
“What really hurt us is that they made basketball plays,” NU coach June Olkowski said. “They’re much more athletic than we are, and we have to become better basketball players.”
A relatively easy diagnosis. The Cats saw Illinois (7-8, 2-1 Big Ten) handle the ball better, hit the boards harder and shoot with a collectively hotter hand.
“We have to work on the little things, the things we can control,” Olkowski said. “I can’t control how big someone is or how high someone jumps. But there are parts of not being athletic that you can do, and that’s fundamental defense, that’s fundamental boxing out, that’s fundamental spacing offensively.”
The man-to-man defense and spacing hurt the Cats (4-10, 0-4) above all, as they could not prevent Illinois from penetrating into the paint. The Illini scored twice as many points as NU in the lane.
In addition, the Cats were outrebounded once again and were hard-pressed to keep up with Illinois’ lightning transition game. On fast break after fast break, the Illini took turns racing to the basket for easy layups.
Freshman Aminata Yanni came off the bench to score 15 points, hitting from inside and outside. But unlike many of the teams the Cats have seen this season, Illinois boasted more than a single go-to player. Guard Anne O’Neil led the Illini with 17 points, and center Dawn Vana added 16.
“She doesn’t get frustrated and she has a very calming influence on them,” Olkowski said of Vana. “I watched her in warmups. She was in control of how they stretched, when they stretched. She was like the mother hen.”
The other half of NU’s troubles: The Cats received less than standout contributions from their standouts.
After a breakout performance against Ohio State on Sunday, senior guard Dana Leonard recorded only one field goal in the first half and finished with 10 points. NU’s leading scorer, Emily Butler, had only nine points in the game.
“I was disappointed with myself and with the team as a whole,” Leonard said. “These are our archrivals, and we’re at home. We should’ve come out with pride and showed a lot of heart. I think we did that at the beginning, and then we just lost it. And I don’t know why.”
The Cats opened the game with promise, keeping pace with Illinois through the first 12 minutes. But Illinois went on a 9-0 run that made the score 30-20. By halftime the Cats were trailing by 14. By the end of the game they had lost their grasp of the fundamentals.
Center Tami Sears and forward Michelle Zylstra provided the wafer-thin silver lining for the game. Sears scored 16 points, equaling her best output of the season since returning from a stress fracture in her leg. Zylstra, coming off the bench, scored 10 points and hit a pair of successive threes in the first half.
“There’s part of me that’s glad I’m back on a rhythm,” Zylstra said. “But there’s really no excuse for the score tonight.”
Adding insult to the ugly score, the loss came against in-state rivals in front of a small crowd of mostly Illinois supporters.
“It’s kind of disappointing when you walk out and see more orange than purple,” Leonard said. “The little kids must have had to stay home — bedtime or something.”
Said Butler: “That’s something you really can’t control. The more games you win, the more people want to come and watch you play.”
