Cearah Parchment Hits Four 3s as No. 23 Illinois Smothers Southern 99-28

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The scoreboard said 12-3 for about as long as it takes to inbound a basketball. Then Illinois went on an 18-0 run to finish the first quarter, a 25-0 run that carried across halftime, and a 99-28 demolition of Southern on Saturday, Nov. 7, at State Farm Center.

Cearah Parchment led the No. 23 Fighting Illini with 18 points on 7 of 9 shooting, including four 3-pointers. Berry Wallace added 13 without missing a shot from the floor, Gretchen Dolan and Aaliyah Guyton scored 12 apiece, and Jasmine Brown-Hagger chipped in 11. Every one of the 12 Illini who checked in scored, and Illinois moved to 2-0 in front of 4,768 fans on a night the program welcomed back alumni for a 30-year reunion of its Big Ten championship team.

Southern fell to 0-2. Here is the official box score (opens in a new tab), the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab) and Illinois' recap (opens in a new tab).

A first quarter that ended the debate

Parchment set the tone 25 seconds in with a 3-pointer, and Illinois never trailed. The Illini scored the game's first 12 points before Southern finally answered with a 3 of its own. That was close to the last good news the Jaguars got for a while.

Illinois closed the period on an 18-0 run. Dolan buried back to back 3s in the middle of it, and Guyton came off the bench to score the final five points of the quarter. The Illini went 7 of 11 from 3-point range in the opening 10 minutes. Southern went 1 for 11 from the field. The quarter ended 30-3, which is the kind of number that makes a coach on the other bench start thinking about how to manage minutes rather than how to win.

The quick start mattered for more than the margin. It let Illinois spread the floor time around early, and nobody in orange and blue played more than 24 minutes.

The run that bridged halftime

The second quarter was the Illini's quietest of the day at 16-6, and they still went to the locker room up 46-9. Southern made just 4 of 30 shots in the first half.

Then came the stretch that turned a blowout into a rout. Illinois strung together a 25-0 run that started before the break and spilled into the third quarter, pushing the lead to 60-9 midway through the period. Parchment was the engine of it, scoring on a pair of fast break layups and a 3. The Illini won the third quarter 29-5 and held Southern to one field goal in it, matching the one field goal the Jaguars managed in the first quarter.

The lead topped out at 77 points when Maddie Webber made two free throws for a 96-19 edge with 3:49 to play. Southern's best stretch came after that, when it scored nine of the game's last 12 points against Illinois' deepest reserves. The Jaguars' 14 points in the fourth were more than they scored in the first and third quarters combined.

The defense did the heavy lifting

Illinois' recap led with the defense, and the numbers explain why. Southern shot 17 percent from the field and 4 of 23 from 3-point range. The Jaguars committed 21 turnovers, and Illinois turned them into 40 points. The Illini had 11 steals, outscored Southern 46-8 in the paint and 19-0 in transition.

Southern did not score a single fast break point in 40 minutes, while Illinois had nearly 20. Every Jaguar possession started against a set defense, and that defense rarely let the ball get anywhere comfortable. Destiny Jackson set the tone at the point of attack with three steals to go with a game-high seven assists.

The glass was just as lopsided. Illinois won the rebounding battle 49-22 and grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, which turned into 25 second-chance points. Manuella Alves was the reason for a lot of that. Coming off the bench, Alves pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds, seven of them on the offensive end, and added seven points. Divine Bourrage added seven more boards in 15 minutes, giving the two reserves 17 rebounds between them, five fewer than Southern's entire team.

The Illini also lived at the free throw line, going 18 of 26 to Southern's 6 of 10, a 12-point edge.

Parchment, Wallace and an efficient offense

On the other end, Illinois shot 57.4 percent, made 35 of 61 shots, hit 11 of 24 from deep and assisted on 19 of its 35 baskets.

Parchment was the most efficient version of herself. Her four 3-pointers on six attempts tied a career high she first set at Oregon State on Nov. 14, 2025, and the 18 points gave her the 27th double figure game of her career, according to Illinois.

Wallace did her damage without much noise. She went 3 for 3 from the field, including 1 for 1 from 3, and 6 of 8 at the line for 13 points, with five rebounds, an assist and a block. Illinois said it was Wallace's 46th career double figure game and the 26th in a row, a streak that says plenty about how steady Wallace has been for more than a season.

Dolan's line was 12 points on 4 of 6 shooting with two 3s and six rebounds, and the school credited her with a team-best plus 53. Brown-Hagger hit double figures for the first time this season, going 5 for 9 with two steals.

A bench that matched the starters

The most telling number in the box score might be bench points: Illinois 40, Southern 3. The Illini starters scored 59, and the reserves were close behind.

Guyton led that group with 12 points on 5 of 9 shooting, two 3s and three assists. Illinois noted it was her ninth double figure game in an Illini uniform and her eighth game at the school with multiple 3s, six of them coming in her last 12 games dating to last season. She has become a reliable source of instant offense off the bench.

Webber scored eight on 2 of 6 shooting and a perfect 4 of 4 at the line. Lety Vasconcelos added six points and two steals in 18 minutes. Bourrage scored four to go with her seven rebounds, and Ona Riopedre and Mia Zenere got on the board in the closing minutes.

That depth is the real takeaway from a game that was over early. Ten Illini played at least 15 minutes. The rotation was close to even, with the starters averaging about 21 minutes and the main reserves not far behind. Against Big Ten competition the minutes will tighten, but the Illini now have film of a 10 or 11 player rotation producing at a high level, and they got real reps for frontcourt players like Alves and Bourrage who will be asked to rebound in bigger games.

For Southern, Zaria Hurston led the way with eight points and five rebounds, and went 3 of 6 at the free throw line. Deniya Thornton and Diamond Hunter scored five each, Anaja Hall added four, and Alisha Nunley and Taelar Felton had three apiece. The Jaguars were 9 of 52 from the field by ESPN's count, and their three bench points all came from Felton.

What it means and what is next

Two games into the season, Illinois has done exactly what a ranked team should do against a nonconference schedule built to start the year at home. The Illini beat Detroit Mercy 84-50 in the opener on Nov. 4 and followed it with a game in which they never let Southern breathe. The defense that held the Jaguars to 17 percent is the part worth watching, because it travels in a way that hot shooting from 3 does not.

The bigger tests are coming. Illinois closes its season-opening homestand against SEMO on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m. CT, then visits Ball State on Nov. 18. Marquette and Saint Joseph's follow on Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, and the Illini visit Wisconsin on Dec. 5. Chicago State and Missouri follow on Dec. 7 and Dec. 10.

Southern's road start has been rough. Three days after this game, the Jaguars lost 86-47 at No. 18 Minnesota on Nov. 10. Southwestern Athletic Conference play is where their season will be decided, and the Jaguars will need far more than 28 points to make noise there.

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, catch up on Michigan's upset of UConn and UConn's bounce back win over Iowa. On the men's side, read about the Illinois men's loss to Texas Tech. For more on the Illini, visit our Illinois team page.

Sources: official box score, ESPN box score, Illinois Athletics, AP.

Photo: Illinois Athletics.