CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Their second consecutive road contest against a Big Ten Conference (B1G) foe and their final game before Thanksgiving, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies will square off with the Illinois Fighting Illini at the State Farm Center on Monday, November 21 at 7 p.m.

Oakland brings a 2-1 record into play Monday, winning their first two tilts of the season against the Akron Zips and Central Michigan Chippewas before falling to the Michigan State Spartans in their last action on November 15.

Unbeaten under first-year head coach Shauna Green and yet to play away from home in 2022-23, the Fighting Illini moved to 4-0 with a 93-54 victory over the Evansville Purple Aces on November 19.

Sharpshooting sophomore Kennedie Montue leads the Golden Grizzlies in scoring at 12 points-per-game and has buried a team-high six 3-pointers this season. The Steel City native and Plum High School graduate had a career-high 21 against Akron, but has been held to a total over 15 over the last two contests.

While Montue is always a threat to heat up and help carry Oakland offensively, the Golden Grizzlies can also rely on junior forward Alexis Johnson and versatile senior Breanne Beatty, both of whom are averaging at least nine points-per-night.

SCOUTING ILLINOIS
Although their early-season schedule has been favorable – facing the LIU Sharks, Alcorn State Braves, McNeese State Cowgirls and Evansville – the Fighting Illini have taken care of business under Green, winning each of these games by at least 31 and averaging 89.5 points.

Three Illinois players are averaging in double figures, with junior guard and Dayton Flyers transfer Makira Cook pacing the pack at 15.5 points, followed by fellow junior guard Genesis Bryant at 14.5 and sophomore Adalia McKenzie at 13.5.

Impressively, Bryant is reaching her 14.5 while coming off the bench and, like Cook, she is a transfer, having spent her first two collegiate seasons in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) with the North Carolina State Wolfpack.

6-foot-2 junior forward Kendall Bostic, who played the 2020-21 campaign at Michigan State and has already tallied a pair of double-doubles this year, is the Fighting Illini's top rebounder at 9.8 per game and is providing Illinois with the same number of points.

ALL-TIME SERIES AND LAST MEETING
Separated by just under 400 miles, Oakland has only played the Fighting Illini twice, splitting the meetings.

A home-and-home in 2009-10 and 2010-11, the Golden Grizzlies won the latter in Rochester on December 8, 2010, a 62-61 decision in overtime.

TELEVISION AND SOCIAL MEDIA COVERAGE
Monday's action will air live on B1G+ (subscription required), and can be viewed here.

Additionally, here is the link to the Live Stats.

SEASON-LONG STORYLINES

NEW FACES FOR GOLDEN GRIZZLIES
Faced with the graduations of Kahlaijah Dean, Kayla Luchenbach and Brianna Breedy, who combined to average 28.7 points and 9.9 rebounds last season, the Golden Grizzlies brought in a trio of diversely talented transfers in Raquel Ferrer-Bernad, Alexis Johnson and Linda Van Schaik.

A Southfield A&T Warriors graduate, Johnson is a junior forward who played three seasons in Conference USA (C-USA) for the Marshall Thundering Herd, while Ferrer-Bernad is a graduate student point guard who came from a different C-USA program, the Florida International Panthers.

Van Schaik, another junior, joined Oakland by way of the Sun Belt Conference's Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks and projects to provide the team with another 3-point shooting threat.

On top of the program's work in the transfer portal, the Golden Grizzlies' 2022 recruiting class features a couple of high-upside players in guard Brooke Daniels, a Miss Michigan Basketball candidate a year ago from L'Anse Creuse North, and Lianna Baxter, a 6-foot-1 forward who starred at Oconto and is one of the top-100 scorers in Wisconsin high school history.

BREANNE BEATTY HEADLINES GROUP OF RETURNING PLAYERS
Appearing in all 83 of the program's games over the last three seasons, and starting all but two of them, senior guard/forward Breanne Beatty was named to the Preseason All-Horizon League Second Team on October 18.

The pride of Worthington, Ohio, Beatty is Oakland's leading returning scorer at 9.7 points-per-game in 2021-22.

In addition to Beatty, junior guard Sug Williams and guards Kennedie Montue and Aaliyah McQueen and forward Miriam Ibezim, all of whom of sophomores, are back with the program and are in line to contribute significantly right from the season's opening tip.

JEFF TUNGATE ENTERS 10^TH SEASON
Named the eighth head coach in program history on July 16, 2013, the 2022-23 campaign is the 10^th with Jeff Tungate at the helm.

Third on the school's all-time wins list with 106, Tungate and four-year veteran assistant Crystal Davis made some changes to the coaching staff ahead of this season, bringing in Golden Grizzly Hall of Famer and former Mercyhurst Lakers head coach Deanna Richard and Tim Webb, who has extensive coaching experience at both the high school and collegiate levels in Michigan, as assistant coaches.