Illinois nearly stuns No. 5 Indiana on the road

Dec 4, 2022 - 8:50 PM

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The times are changing.

New Illinois women’s basketball head coach Shauna Green has the program heading in the right direction, as evidenced by nearly a historic upset Sunday afternoon in Bloomington.

The Illini came one shot away from beating undefeated No. 5 Indiana, losing 65-61 in what would have been Illinois’ first road win over a top-5 team in program history.

According to TCR’s Stats Department (shoutout Alex Orr), the Illini have just two wins over a top-5 opponent all-time. The first came in triple-overtime against No. 3 Long Beach State in 1982. The most recent was an 82-65 thumping of No. 5 Georgia in 2000 — both those results happened in Champaign.

Junior Makira Cook, who transferred to Illinois (7-2, 0-1 Big Ten) from Dayton with her head coach during the offseason, was the big scorer for the Illini, finishing with 33 points on 12-of-25 shooting.

We’ll have more coverage of this wild game this week. But wow, this is a team you can be proud of. And a remarkable turnaround.

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The Illini now return to State Farm Center for their Big Ten home opener against Rutgers.

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday on BTN+.