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Friday, Mar. 2 8:15pm ET
Illinois advances to Big Ten tourney semis RECAP | BOX SCORE
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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – Too many turnovers and too many fouls
were Wisconsin's undoing.
At least, that's how coach Jane Albright saw it after Illinois
upset her Badgers (No. 24 ESPN/USA Today, No. 20 AP) 80-68 Friday in a quarterfinal game of the Big Ten tournament.
"I think that there are two glaring factors that contributed to
this game: Can't turn the ball over 25 times and putting the team
on the line 32 times," Albright said.
The Illini converted on 27 of 32 free throws. Ten of Anne
O'Neil's 18 points came from the foul line.
Illinois (16-14), the tournament's sixth-seeded team, will face
23rd-ranked Iowa, the No. 2 seed, in a semifinal game Saturday at
Van Andel Arena.
The Illini jumped to an early lead they never relinquished.
With the game tied at 15, Illinois scored seven straight points
on a Curtin 3-pointer, a layup by Iveta Marcauskaite layup and a
basket by O'Neil that put the Illini ahead 22-15 with 7:23 left in
the first half. The Badgers trailed 35-27 at halftime and never
pulled even again.
The 12-point margin of victory represented Illinois' largest
lead of the night.
"They worked it, they rebounded it and they played well,"
Illini coach Theresa Grentz said of her players.
She said her team's zone defense was effective in slowing down
the Badgers.
"We wanted them to put the ball on the floor and they did not
reverse the ball well, so it worked," Grentz said.
Allison Curtin had 20 points to lead Illinois. Cindy Dallas had
16 points by hitting 6 of 7 field-goal attempts and all four of her
free-throw attempts. The hustling Illini defense held a 14-5
advantage in steals.
"We came out and played great today," Curtin said. "I've
never been happier than the way we played as a team."
Nina Smith led a balanced Wisconsin scoring attack with 19
points. LaTonya Sims had 17 points, Tamara Moore scored 12 and
Jessie Stomski and Kyle Black had 10 apiece.
Wisconsin defeated the Illini 73-65 in Champaign, Ill., on Jan.
25. This time around, Illinois was "a lot more scrappier," Moore
said.
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