EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern (7-5, 0-1) will host the Fighting Illini of Illinois in a New Year's Eve showdown at 2 pm inside Welsh-Ryan Arena for its Big Ten home opener. Tickets for that came can be found here.
Both teams enter the contest after hard fought conference losses. The Wildcats sparked a 16 point comeback against Rutgers Friday night led by Lindsey Pulliam but fell to the Scarlet Knights 45-41. The Fighting Illini dropped to Indiana in an overtime thriller, 85-53 at home.
Northwestern leads the all-time series with Illinois 41-34 and 10-7 in the Joe McKeown era, winning the last six games.
Sophomore Lindsey Pulliam continues to lead the 'Cats in scoring, averaging 14.8 ppg and recorded her 11thstraight double-digit point game this season. She also ranks tenth in the Big Ten in scoring, recording 178 points so far.
Senior Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah pulled down 17 rebounds against Rutgers and has 134 boards this season. She's recorded six double-doubles in her senior campaign and leads the team with 20 blocks.
Northwestern has forced double-digit turnovers from all of its opponents this year and ranks second in the Big Ten in turnover margin at +4.2. The Wildcat defense has recorded 118 steals this season with First year Veronica Burton leading that stat with 22.
Scouting the opponent:
Both teams enter the contest after hard fought conference losses. The Wildcats sparked a 16 point comeback against Rutgers Friday night led by Lindsey Pulliam but fell to the Scarlet Knights 45-41. The Fighting Illini dropped to Indiana in an overtime thriller, 85-53 at home.
Northwestern leads the all-time series with Illinois 41-34 and 10-7 in the Joe McKeown era, winning the last six games.
Sophomore Lindsey Pulliam continues to lead the 'Cats in scoring, averaging 14.8 ppg and recorded her 11thstraight double-digit point game this season. She also ranks tenth in the Big Ten in scoring, recording 178 points so far.
Senior Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah pulled down 17 rebounds against Rutgers and has 134 boards this season. She's recorded six double-doubles in her senior campaign and leads the team with 20 blocks.
Northwestern has forced double-digit turnovers from all of its opponents this year and ranks second in the Big Ten in turnover margin at +4.2. The Wildcat defense has recorded 118 steals this season with First year Veronica Burton leading that stat with 22.
Scouting the opponent:
- The Fighting Illini 8-4 overall and 0-1 in the Big Ten.
- Leading scorer Alex Wittinger is averaging 17.9 ppg, ranks second in the conference in scoring and fifth in field goal percentage at .593
- The team also is second in the Big Ten for blocked shots, averaging 5.7 per game and defensive rebounds with a 30.5 apg.
- Illinois ranks fourth in the conference in field goal percentage with .462.