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Mar. 22—NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jasmine Brown-Hagger had her left ankle wrapped in ice and black kinesiology tape covering her shin in the Illinois women's basketball team's locker room late Saturday night after the Illini's first-round NCAA tournament game against Colorado.
That was all the result of an ankle sprain the 5-foot-9 junior guard suffered in the third quarter. A sprain that required the Shorewood native to not put any weight on her left leg while being helped off the court.
Brown-Hagger spent the next three minutes of game time at the end of the Illinois bench sitting on the floor along the baseline with her feet out as trainer Autumn Taylor tried to help the Illini guard contend with the considerable pain she was feeling. Brown-Hagger eventually got to her feet and started stretching before checking back into the game with 35 seconds left in the third quarter.
The aftereffects that Brown-Hagger had been dealing with hadn't subsided nearly 30 minutes after the final buzzer sounded — even if she played basically the entire fourth quarter with that ankle injury.
It's just that Brown-Hagger's Illinois teammates made sure that effort to play through pain wasn't in vain, as the seventh-seeded Illini advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 66-57 victory against the 10th-seeded Buffaloes before an announced crowd of 4,111 fans at historic Memorial Gymnasium on the Vanderbilt University campus.
That Brown-Hagger found a way to play through that injury was indicative in coach Shauna Green's mind of the mindset her team had as a whole on Saturday night.
A key reason Illinois (22-11) is still dancing in the NCAA tournament for a few more days.
"That's what you got to do if you want to win in March, right? It's the NCAA tournament," the Illini fourth-year coach said. "You lose, you go home. I tell them that all the time. I say that all the time. How tough are you going to be? How bad do you want it? Every 50/50 (ball) has to be yours if you're going to continue to move on. I loved it. That's what I want this program to be about is tough, gritty, blue collar, hard nosed, whatever you want to call it. ... And then obviously Jas, you know, the toughness she showed (Saturday night) with playing through an ankle sprain, that's what you want. You want those type of competitors on your team. You want that toughness on your team. You have that, you've got a chance."
And now, the Illini have a chance to break through another barrier — and reach the Sweet 16 of March Madness for the first time since 1998 — if Illinois can pull off the improbable and upset No. 2 seed Vanderbilt on its home floor at 6 p.m. on Monday in a second-round NCAA game.
But Saturday night was as much about how the Illini showed they can win in different ways as Colorado (22-12) forced Illinois to play a grind-it-out style.
Brown-Hagger embraced that style even if the veteran guard didn't score a single point and took just two shot attempts (missed them both). And yet, Illinois was plus 13 in point differential during Brown-Hagger's 28 minutes on the floor. That was the best mark on the Illini team as Brown-Hagger tied a career-high with four steals.
"Honestly, if you want to win, you are willing to do anything it takes," Brown-Hagger said from the locker room afterward. "I mean, I knew I had to make the right reads, the right passes and then defend my butt off. ... I think everyone stepped up in a major way (on Saturday night). Everyone had really good responses in a major way. So, I just think everyone was buying in, and I know for me that I am going to do what it is for this team to win. I think it was more of a leadership day for me and a more defensive day for me. Now, Monday may look a little different for me, you know, but just knowing that I can fit different molds in a game and put that on my chest is huge."
What was also substantial for Illinois in its nine-point win against the Buffaloes was the way in which the freshman duo of Destiny Jackson and Cearah Parchment — alongside sophomore forward Berry Wallace — nearly single-handedly outscored Colorado.
Jackson, Parchment and Wallace collectively accounted for 55 of the Illini's 66 points. That the Buffaloes had only 57 points as a team puts that into context. And what was more impressive is that Jackson and Parchment were making their NCAA tournament debuts.
"It was really cool," Parchment said of having such a big game during her first time playing on the grandest stage in women's college basketball. "I think it was just one of those nights where everything was going in, especially in the first half. So, it was nice to kind of just get used to it, especially after not playing for a couple weeks. So, I'm looking forward to playing on Monday (in the second round against Vanderbilt)."
That Illinois led for 34 minutes, 28 seconds in defeating Colorado didn't paint the complete picture of Saturday's first-round NCAA matchup. The Illini didn't hold a double-digit lead at any point against the Buffaloes until the final 30 seconds of the fourth quarter.
Colorado had, in fact, whittled a nine-point deficit midway through the third quarter down to an 47-46 Illinois lead with 9:43 left in the game.
That the youngest NCAA tournament team in the 68-team field in the Illini held steady outscoring the Buffaloes by eight points the rest of the way wasn't lost on Green.
All part of a growth mindset.
"Again, just with how (Colorado) really mucks it up, you know, defensively so they make things really, really hard, but just someone always made a play for us," Green said. "So then we got the stops, so you got to string possessions together on both ends. We were able to do that in that fourth quarter and final few minutes. So again, resiliency down the stretch. We've been in a lot of close games where this group has had to make those key plays. I thought that kind of came through (Saturday), (and) that our league prepared us for a lot of those tight ones and close ones against really tough teams."
Those key plays really came from Jackson in the final 10 minutes.
Few shots were bigger than the corner three-pointer the 5-foot-6 guard confidently stroked into the net to put Illinois ahead 56-50 with 6:23 left in the game as the Chicago native ended up scoring 11 of her points in the fourth quarter.
A personal run that gave the Illini some breathing space, as Colorado never got within four points of Illinois the rest of the way.
And an opportunity on Monday in a second-round matchup with host Vanderbilt for another breakthrough moment for an Illinois program looking to return to the NCAA tournament's second weekend.
"It means a lot to me just that I was able to do what I did to help my team out, especially to get the win," Jackson said. "That's the most important thing. My mindset in that fourth quarter was doing whatever I needed to do to help my team win. Whatever that looked like I was going to do it. That's what my approach was."
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That was all the result of an ankle sprain the 5-foot-9 junior guard suffered in the third quarter. A sprain that required the Shorewood native to not put any weight on her left leg while being helped off the court.
Brown-Hagger spent the next three minutes of game time at the end of the Illinois bench sitting on the floor along the baseline with her feet out as trainer Autumn Taylor tried to help the Illini guard contend with the considerable pain she was feeling. Brown-Hagger eventually got to her feet and started stretching before checking back into the game with 35 seconds left in the third quarter.
The aftereffects that Brown-Hagger had been dealing with hadn't subsided nearly 30 minutes after the final buzzer sounded — even if she played basically the entire fourth quarter with that ankle injury.
It's just that Brown-Hagger's Illinois teammates made sure that effort to play through pain wasn't in vain, as the seventh-seeded Illini advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 66-57 victory against the 10th-seeded Buffaloes before an announced crowd of 4,111 fans at historic Memorial Gymnasium on the Vanderbilt University campus.
That Brown-Hagger found a way to play through that injury was indicative in coach Shauna Green's mind of the mindset her team had as a whole on Saturday night.
A key reason Illinois (22-11) is still dancing in the NCAA tournament for a few more days.
"That's what you got to do if you want to win in March, right? It's the NCAA tournament," the Illini fourth-year coach said. "You lose, you go home. I tell them that all the time. I say that all the time. How tough are you going to be? How bad do you want it? Every 50/50 (ball) has to be yours if you're going to continue to move on. I loved it. That's what I want this program to be about is tough, gritty, blue collar, hard nosed, whatever you want to call it. ... And then obviously Jas, you know, the toughness she showed (Saturday night) with playing through an ankle sprain, that's what you want. You want those type of competitors on your team. You want that toughness on your team. You have that, you've got a chance."
And now, the Illini have a chance to break through another barrier — and reach the Sweet 16 of March Madness for the first time since 1998 — if Illinois can pull off the improbable and upset No. 2 seed Vanderbilt on its home floor at 6 p.m. on Monday in a second-round NCAA game.
But Saturday night was as much about how the Illini showed they can win in different ways as Colorado (22-12) forced Illinois to play a grind-it-out style.
Brown-Hagger embraced that style even if the veteran guard didn't score a single point and took just two shot attempts (missed them both). And yet, Illinois was plus 13 in point differential during Brown-Hagger's 28 minutes on the floor. That was the best mark on the Illini team as Brown-Hagger tied a career-high with four steals.
"Honestly, if you want to win, you are willing to do anything it takes," Brown-Hagger said from the locker room afterward. "I mean, I knew I had to make the right reads, the right passes and then defend my butt off. ... I think everyone stepped up in a major way (on Saturday night). Everyone had really good responses in a major way. So, I just think everyone was buying in, and I know for me that I am going to do what it is for this team to win. I think it was more of a leadership day for me and a more defensive day for me. Now, Monday may look a little different for me, you know, but just knowing that I can fit different molds in a game and put that on my chest is huge."
What was also substantial for Illinois in its nine-point win against the Buffaloes was the way in which the freshman duo of Destiny Jackson and Cearah Parchment — alongside sophomore forward Berry Wallace — nearly single-handedly outscored Colorado.
Jackson, Parchment and Wallace collectively accounted for 55 of the Illini's 66 points. That the Buffaloes had only 57 points as a team puts that into context. And what was more impressive is that Jackson and Parchment were making their NCAA tournament debuts.
"It was really cool," Parchment said of having such a big game during her first time playing on the grandest stage in women's college basketball. "I think it was just one of those nights where everything was going in, especially in the first half. So, it was nice to kind of just get used to it, especially after not playing for a couple weeks. So, I'm looking forward to playing on Monday (in the second round against Vanderbilt)."
That Illinois led for 34 minutes, 28 seconds in defeating Colorado didn't paint the complete picture of Saturday's first-round NCAA matchup. The Illini didn't hold a double-digit lead at any point against the Buffaloes until the final 30 seconds of the fourth quarter.
Colorado had, in fact, whittled a nine-point deficit midway through the third quarter down to an 47-46 Illinois lead with 9:43 left in the game.
That the youngest NCAA tournament team in the 68-team field in the Illini held steady outscoring the Buffaloes by eight points the rest of the way wasn't lost on Green.
All part of a growth mindset.
"Again, just with how (Colorado) really mucks it up, you know, defensively so they make things really, really hard, but just someone always made a play for us," Green said. "So then we got the stops, so you got to string possessions together on both ends. We were able to do that in that fourth quarter and final few minutes. So again, resiliency down the stretch. We've been in a lot of close games where this group has had to make those key plays. I thought that kind of came through (Saturday), (and) that our league prepared us for a lot of those tight ones and close ones against really tough teams."
Those key plays really came from Jackson in the final 10 minutes.
Few shots were bigger than the corner three-pointer the 5-foot-6 guard confidently stroked into the net to put Illinois ahead 56-50 with 6:23 left in the game as the Chicago native ended up scoring 11 of her points in the fourth quarter.
A personal run that gave the Illini some breathing space, as Colorado never got within four points of Illinois the rest of the way.
And an opportunity on Monday in a second-round matchup with host Vanderbilt for another breakthrough moment for an Illinois program looking to return to the NCAA tournament's second weekend.
"It means a lot to me just that I was able to do what I did to help my team out, especially to get the win," Jackson said. "That's the most important thing. My mindset in that fourth quarter was doing whatever I needed to do to help my team win. Whatever that looked like I was going to do it. That's what my approach was."
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