Women’s Basketball: Purdue 70, Illinois 66

Purdue snapped their 8 game losing streak Sunday afternoon inside Mackey Arena on Senior Night, beating Illinois by a score of 70-66.

Throughout the entire season, fans and media alike have been hard on this team during their struggles. An 8 game losing streak is tough on everyone and this game even though had very little meaning in the grand scheme of things, it lifted a burden off of the girl’s shoulders.

It was looking a bit rough to start our this game for Purdue and Illinois as both teams largely went back and forth scoring wise, with the Boilermakers taking a two point lead into halftime by a score of 29-27.

At the beginning of the second half, Purdue came out and started putting on a clinic. Brooke Moore scored 8 straight points in the midst of a 12-0 Boilermaker run to extend the lead to 11 points. Unfortunately as we all know, especially with this team, no lead is safe.

After a Kayana Traylor layup put Purdue up 16, the game looked to be all but over... Then Illinois came rumbling back with a 19-3 run and tied the game at 61 apiece with just 2:27 left in the ballgame. Down the stretch, Traylor was able to knock down three free throws to seal the game for the Boilermakers in a nail-biter.

Purdue honored the four women class of Jenelle Grant, Tamara Farquhar, Fatou Diagne and Leony Boudreau in what is most likely their last game inside Mackey Arena. They can come back next season after the NCAA gifted winter athletes another season of eligibility, but it remains to be seen if any of them will.

It has been a long and tough season for the Boilermakers but it is really nice to see the seniors get a win in their final Purdue home game.

The Boilermakers have wrapped up the regular season with a 7-14 overall record, going 4-13 during conference play. They will be the #12 seed in the Big Ten Tournament next week, playing Wisconsin in the 12/13 game on Tuesday at 5pm EST and will be available on Big Ten Network.