{"id":34266,"date":"2026-04-02T07:03:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T12:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=34266"},"modified":"2026-04-02T07:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T12:04:16","slug":"grace-nelson-member-of-illinois-state-basketball-team-headed-to-nit-championship-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/34266-grace-nelson-member-of-illinois-state-basketball-team-headed-to-nit-championship-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace Nelson Member of Illinois State Basketball Team Headed To NIT Championship Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34267 additional-class\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GRACE-NELSON.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GRACE-NELSON.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GRACE-NELSON-200x300.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Grace Nelson<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Illinois State women&#8217;s basketball team will be playing for the championship of the NIT Tournament Saturday and area basketball fans will want to note who is a member of the team.<\/p>\n<p>Grace Nelson will be taking the floor. Area fans will remember Nelson who guided Altamont High School to an IHSA State Finals appearance in 2023-24.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson was a finalist for Illinois Miss Basketball in 2024, finishing third. She averaged 30.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.9 steals and 2.9 assists for the Indians, who finished with a 28-7 record and in third place in the 2024 Class 1A State Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>She was a three-time IBCA All-State First Team pick, scoring over 2,000 career points in four varsity seasons and ranks eighth on the all-time state single-season scoring list with 1,066 points during her senior campaign. She finished with 2,862 points for her career, ranking 15th in state history.<\/p>\n<p>Now she is playing for Illinois State University. Things started out rocky for Nelson during her first year. Nelson had to red-shirt her freshman season due to an injury.<\/p>\n<p>For the second-straight season, Illinois State punched its ticket to the WNIT Fab 4 following its 61-53 victory over George Washington on Monday night at CEFCU Arena in the tournament quarterfinals.<\/p>\n<p>The team then squared off against South Dakota at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center for a chance to head to the championship game.<\/p>\n<p>The Redbirds handled South Dakota with a 67-60 tally. Nelson played 30 minutes where she grabbed a rebound, had an assist and a blocked shot.<\/p>\n<p>Next up the Redbirds will meet Marshall who defeated Arkansas State, 69-62. The championship contest will be at Marshall&#8217;s Cam Henderson Center in Huntington, West Virginia at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Grace Nelson The Illinois State women&#8217;s basketball team will be playing for the championship of the NIT Tournament Saturday and area basketball fans will want to note who is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-34266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball","tag-sports-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Grace Nelson Member of Illinois State Basketball Team Headed To NIT Championship Game - 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