CHAMPAIGN — When Illinois coach Theresa Grentz saw the final score of Thursday’s game between the Fighting Illini and Northwestern, she knew she got away with one.
Twenty feet away, NU coach June Olkowski knew she let one get away.
Illinois guard Janelle Hughes took an inbounds pass with 9.3 seconds remaining and slashed her way through the NU defense, nailing a 12-foot fadeaway over Sarah Kwasinski with two seconds left on the clock to send the Illini to a 60-58 win over the Wildcats in front of 2,580 at Assembly Hall.
“When you look at the stats and see that we were able to come out of this one with a win, it’s amazing,” Grentz said. “We consider ourselves extremely lucky, and I’m sure Northwestern is feeling terrible because they played great.”
NU led most of the way and had accumulated a 14-point lead with 4:23 remaining in the first half.
“I thought we played an excellent game, especially in the beginning,” Olkowski said. “We gave that team more than it could handle.”
NU squandered a six-point halftime lead by allowing Illinois to score eight unanswered points to start the second half.
After going scoreless for four minutes, NU got moving and maintained a slight advantage behind the sharpshooting of senior guard Natalie Will. Will was 6-for-6 from the field and scored 10 of her team-high 14 points in the second half.
But it was a costly turnover by Will with time winding down that gave Hughes and the Illini a chance to steal the win.
After forward Angelina Williams missed a jumper with 14 seconds left, guard Sam McComb grabbed a rebound and called a timeout with 9.3 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing inbounds pass, Will struggled to find an open player and threw the ball across the court and out of bounds, untouched.
“At the time, I didn’t see anyone open,” Will said. “I’m sure when I look at the tape, I’ll see someone open — but at the time I didn’t.
“As a senior, that was a turnover that I wasn’t supposed to make.”
Hughes capped the Illinois comeback with the acrobatic shot that ignited the crowd.
“There’s nothing you can do when someone makes a fadeaway shot over a 6-foot-4 Sarah Kwasinski,” Olkowski said. “We had expected the ball to go to Angelina Williams, but we still defended the shot well.”
Illinois knew the wrong team walked off the court with a win.
“We were supposed to give it to Williams (on the final shot), and I kept shouting at Janelle (Hughes) to pass it, but she didn’t listen,” Grentz said. “There were times in this game when we played God-awful, and I don’t know how we came out on top.”
Williams led Illinois with 22 points while forward Cindy Dallas had a game-high 10 rebounds.
NU is still seeking its first conference road victory, and will have its last crack Sunday when the team travels to Michigan State.
“We’re not that disappointed with this loss because we played well,” Will said. “We just have to get over this one and go to Michigan State and win our last game for the seniors.”
