Illinois suffered another setback on Wednesday night, falling 78–69 to Ohio State at the State Farm Center as special guest A’ja Wilson watched on from the stands. It’s not that Illinois didn’t put up a fight, as Cearah Parchment (20 points) and Berry Wallace (17 points) gave Illinois a fighting chance, but Ohio State guard Jaloni Cambridge’s career-high 41 points proved far more than the Illini could contain. Consequently, the game slipped out of Illini coach Shauna Green’s hands (69-78), yet she looked to be in good spirits, as the presence of A’ja Wilson probably rekindled the belief of a better future post-game.

“It was awesome, she got to talk to our team later and just had a really great message for them, and it’s probably the perfect time for her to be here. I would love to win with her here and sometimes after a tough loss they are sick of hearing me talk and it was good that A’ja kind of reiterated a lot of things that we talk about everyday about how to sustain greatness and the work that it goes into it then some of her leadership, advise to this team then they got to ask a couple of questions so its awesome,”

“What an unbelievable player, but she’s just a really great person, and that I respect a ton, so it’s pretty cool to have her,” said coach Green about the wonderful experience they all had with A’ja Wilson in the building. Apparently, Illinois had invited her to one of their games, and she didn’t disappoint when it came to answering their call. The attending audience welcomed her with open arms as she and her boyfriend, Bam Adebayo, were seen enjoying the game. A’ja was also presented with the honor of sounding off the alarm at the start of the game.

A’ja Wilson must have relished what she saw, as the game had many moments. First, Ohio took away the Illini’s sense of invincibility at home; second, the Illini came back to reduce the deficit with merely 2 minutes remaining on the clock, and Chance Gray added 18 points for Ohio State, providing key support alongside Cambridge, but obviously, the showstopper of the day was none other than Jaloni Cambridge

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Cambridge Impresses Against Illini as WNBA Legend Watches On

What a night it must have been for Jaloni Cambridge, who could not have asked for anything more. A standout performance for the Buckeyes, followed by a memorable moment meeting one of the game’s greatest stars courtside. The excitement on the sophomore’s face was more than priceless as she stood in front of the WNBA legend. And this wasn’t the first time either.

Jaloni has been the leading point scorer for Ohio on thirteen different occasions, and this was also for a record 4th consecutive time.  UCLA-,28 Purdue-16, Rutgers-18, Illinois-41. The Tennessee native terrorized the Illini defense, breaching in with ease for the layups, making passes to her unmarked teammates, and also effortlessly finishing from outside the perimeter. She was cutting in Shauna Green’s team like a knife through butter, and the Illini never recovered from that.

Illini’s record against Ohio, too, followed the same predicted narrative, and this was no different as Illinois’ recent struggles against Ohio State continued. Gretchen Dolan (4 points)and Maddie Webber’s ( 9 points) off day also made things easy for the Buckeyes, as they had a very lackluster performance.

Hopefully, the team will now learn from the errors made, and if they can somehow imbibe A’ja Wilson’s words of wisdom into their regimen, maybe they can turn things around and start a totally new chapter after this momentary lull. Shauna Green will certainly hope so, and so will Illini fans as the team now turns its attention to Penn State.