Archive - Jan 3, 2012 - Story

This Week in the Big Ten: Boilers Survive a Scare from the Illini in Monday's Big Ten Thriller

Monday's Big Ten conference women's basketball games went much as expected, with one glaring exception. The Fighting Illini more than lived up to their name, turning what had been expected to be a ho-hum outing and a predictable win for No. 18/22 Purdue into a real nail-biter and the highlight of Monday's action. Illinois pushed the Boilers to the brink, taking a two-point lead with just seven seconds left, only to leave Courtney Moses wide open for a three-pointer as time expired. Moses buried it, staving off the near upset, leaving Purdue undefeated at 2-0 in conference play, 12-3 overall, and clinging to a berth in the lower echelon of the national rankings in both major polls.

And also leaving Full Court's Big Ten correspondent Mark Bradford four-for-four in his predictions for Monday's games and nine-for-10 on the season to date. Let's take a closer look at the rest of Monday's results, the current Big Ten standings and Bradford's picks for the upcoming midweek games.

Form Holds As Conference Play Gets Underway for SEC Women's Basketball

SEC conference play got underway for women's basketball on New Year's Day, and the results were pretty much what one might have expected, with all of the conference favorites securing wins in their conference openers.

In the game of the day, the No. 6 Kentucky squeezed out a 59-56 road win against an unranked Florida team that gave the 'Cats a surprisingly tough time. No. 17/15 Georgia also had more trouble than one might have expected but nonetheless edged past Arkansas, 67-57.

Meanwhile, No. 7/8 Tennessee picked up an easy conference win, routing Auburn, 73-52. South Carolina pummeled Alabama, 68-42, and in the most lopsided "contest" of the day, LSU rolled over the Rebels of Ole Miss, 83-44.

Vanderbilt and Mississippi State were idle; they'll face their first conference match-ups on Thursday, January 5.

Let's take a closer look at the opening day match-ups, the current conference standings, and this week's key game.