Illinois wins its Big Ten Conference opener for the first time in nearly a decade with a 21-point blowout over Indiana.
By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer
December 6, 2025
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Even as the Illinois women’s basketball continue to run out of firsts under fourth-year head coach Shauna Green, they crossed off another one Saturday afternoon.
For the first time since the beginning of the 2016-17 season and for the first time under Green, Illinois will begin Big Ten Conference play with a 1-0 record.
In a rare game against Indiana where the home team found very little resistance for most of the 40 minutes of action, the 78-57 win for Illinois (8-1, 1-0 in Big Ten) allowed the orange and blue faithful to walk away from State Farm Center with the program’s largest home victory over its rival in over two decades.
Illinois dominated the paint on the offensive end to the tune of a 58-18 advantage as Indiana (8-2, 0-1) was simply overmatched to handle the Illini’s dribble penetration and inside-out play. Green’s defensive game plan was to basically make somebody in a black Indiana jersey not named Shay Ciezki figure out how to beat them. It quickly became more than obvious Ciezki’s Hoosiers teammates, who only made 11 of 34 from the field and accounted for 15 turnovers, were not up to that challenge.
Ciezki, who came in leading the Big Ten ins scoring at 24.4 points per game, posted 23 points but needed 19 field goal attempts to get to that total.
The 22-point loss for Indiana is their largest in Big Ten play since taking a 84-57 defeat at Iowa on Jan. 13, 2024 when Caitlin Clark dropped 30 points in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Illinois now has back-to-back point home wins over Indiana, which between 2014 and 2023 owned a 16-game win streak over the Illini, of 20 points or more.
Four Illinois players posted a scoring total of 14-16 points with Gretchen Dolan having 16 points in 32 minutes and Maddie Webber also had 16 points in 21 minutes off the bench. Just two games after setting the program record for steals, Cearah Parchment recorded another double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds as the most dominant big on the floor in her 27-minute effort.
After three quarters, Illinois held a 68-32 lead as its defensive effort contained Indiana to just 2 of 12 from beyond the three-point arc while forcing 18 turnovers through the first 30 minutes.
Illinois will go from one in-conference rivalry game to its biggest out-of-conference rivalry game when they travel to Missouri on Wednesday night for a 6 p.m. tip on SEC Network.
