By IlliniGuys Staff

January 18, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Northwestern veteran coach Joe McKeown was honored by Illinois brass ahead of his final game at State Farm Center.

Then the Illini players showed they were determined not to let him take home a win as well from his last trip to Champaign as No. 25 Illinois earned a 74-71 victory.

Sophomore Berry Wallace scored a career-high 29 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter as the Wildcats staged a second half rally from 15 points down to a one-point deficit. It was a 71-70 game when Wallace hit her final field goal with 1:53 remaining.

Grace Sullivan's jumper to tie the game at 73 with 10 seconds left missed the mark and Cearah Parchment grabbed her game-high 11th rebound. The freshman from Ontario then hit one of two free throws for her 10th point and a fifth career double-double.

Caroline Lau missed a game-tying three-pointer in the final seconds as Illinois (15-4, 5-3 in Big Ten) improved to 7-0 against Northwestern since Shauna Green took over as head coach. Green served as a Wildcats assistant coach under McKeown, who is in his 19th and final season at the Big Ten school, in the 2015-16 season. The Illini had lost 14 straight to their in-state rivals prior to Green's tenure.

"I'm really proud of how we played down the stretch", said Green on her postgame radio show. "We've shown that we can get stops when we need them, but we gotta make sure we continue to string possessions together and have a sustained competitive stamina. Otherwise these games are going to be tight."

Wallace posted her 11th 20-point game of the season and her 6th in Big Ten play. The Pickerington, Ohio native set a then-career high with 27 points in the season-opening win over Southeast Missouri State, then scored 28 against North Texas last month and again in a win over Penn State last week before breaking through today in front of a State Farm Center crowd of 5,068.

Aaliyah Guyton got her first start of the season in place of the injured Gretchen Dolan and delivered a season high-tying 13 points. Dolan was out for today with a knee injury. Green said before the game that the junior scoring star's status would be 'day-to-day'.

Wallace also grabbed nine rebounds, four of them on the offensive glass to team up with Parchment to collect half of Illinois' 18 offensive rebounds.

"We set a goal of getting 20 (offensive boards). We almost got it with 18, so that's huge", Green said.

Sullivan led Northwestern (8-11, 2-6 in Big Ten) with 21 points and 9 rebounds.

Illinois will take a few days off before traveling to face 24th ranked Nebraska next Saturday (1pm CT, BTN).

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