By IlliniGuys Staff

January 27, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - With a visiting Purdue team that hadn't won a game since before Christmas, the biggest drama wasn't if Illinois could get a win, rather when Kendall Bostic would make history.

The fifth-year forward, in her fourth and final season with the Illini, didn't disappoint with 11 boards to surpass Jenna Smith as the program's all-time rebounding leader in a 74-38 blowout of the Boilermakers.

Bostic needed just 23 minutes to make history and even fewer than that to stake her team to a double-digit lead. The 6-foot-2 native of Kokomo, Indiana scored 14 points in the first quarter, including seven straight to end the period and give the Illini a 24-11 lead after 10 minutes of play.

Bostic tied Smith's all-time mark with a defensive rebound with 2:32 left in the first half. Head coach Shauna Green immediately pulled her out of the game to save the moment for after halftime.

That came at the 5:14 mark in the third quarter, when Bostic grabbed an errant three-point attempt by Sophie Swanson as her teammates and the State Farm Center crowd erupted, giving her a standing ovation as she checked out of the game moments later to take in the rest of the night from the bench.

Bostic finished with a game-high 17 points to notch her 47th career double-double, six shy of Smith's all-time team record in that category.

Freshman Berry Wallace scored 16 points to miss tying her career high by two points. Genesis Bryant added 13 and Jasmine Brown-Hagger 11 as Illinois (15-5, 5-4 in Big Ten) posted its biggest victory over a Big Ten opponent since beating Northwestern 93-52 in Evanston in January of last year.

Kendall Puryear was the only player scoring in double figures with 10 points for Purdue (7-13, 0-9), which has lost nine in a row.

The Illini travel to Rutgers Thursday night for a 6:00pm CST tipoff on Big Ten Network Plus.

Stay with IlliniGuys.com for complete postgame coverage.