The State Journal-Register: Freshman Rice provides offense for Illini women’s basketball team
Cierra Rice didn’t play her first game in a University of Illinois uniform in Champaign. Or anywhere close.
Instead, the freshman guard scored her first college baskets more than 4,000 miles from home in Paris, including a last-minute layup that sent the Illini into overtime against the AMW All-Stars in the opener of their European tour this summer.
It became clear to Rice — whose teammates call her Cece — during that 84-78 loss that the learning curve between high school and college was going to be a little higher with Illinois relying on her.