Feb. 14, 2008

Box Score

MADISON, Wis. - Illinois suffered another heartbreaking defeat on the road Thursday night as Wisconsin escaped the Kohl Center with a controversial 66-64 victory. Down two with 4.9 seconds left, Illini senior Rebecca Harris drove into the lane as the clock wound down and collided with Wisconsin's Janese Banks, appearing to draw a foul, but was instead called for traveling as the clock expired. Sophomore Jenna Smith was dominant in the paint with 24 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks, but it wasn't enough as the Illini fall to 14-11 overall and 6-8 in the Big Ten.

"Our design was clearly to get Bec to the basket," said Illini coach Jolette Law of the final play. "He (the official) indicated that she traveled and there was no time left on the clock. I thought my player got fouled, but the officials didn't seem to think so. They made the call and that was the ball game."

With Illinois trailing 59-54 and less than two minutes to play, Harris, who had 16 of her 18 points in the second half, took over the game, scoring the final 10 points for the Orange and Blue by aggressively taking the ball to the hoop and either finishing or drawing a foul. She scored on driving lay-ups with both 18 seconds and seven seconds left to pull the Illini within two both times. Then after Wisconsin's Rae Lin D'Alie missed the front end of a one-and-one with 6.5 seconds left Illini sophomore Lacey Simpson secured the rebound and called timeout with 4.9 remaining, setting up the dramatic final sequence.

The finish was similar to the 49-48 loss at Penn State earlier this season when Harris drove to the hoop in the final seconds and hit a what she thought was a game-winning lay-up as time expired, only to be called for a charging foul and having the bucket waved off.

Illinois has now played nine games this season that have been decided by five points or less, the most in the Big Ten, and is 3-6 in games. Five of the Illini's eight conference losses have come by a total of nine points, and each of those games came down to the final seconds.

Early in the game Thursday night Smith was on fire, scoring the first eight points for the Illini, who took an early 8-3 led. But Wisconsin star Jolene Anderson came out of the gates hot as well, scoring 13 of the Badgers first 15 points to knot the score at 15-15 just over eight minutes into the game.

Anderson went to the bench for the final five minutes of the half after picking up her second foul, but the hosts hung around with the conference's leading scorer out of the game. Bjork hit her first and only three-pointer of the game 1:21 before halftime to tie the UI career three-point field goal record and put the Orange and Blue up three, but Wisconsin added a late bucket to pull within 29-28 at the break. Smith had 12 points and seven rebounds at halftime, and Anderson had 13 and eight for the Badgers.

For the game, Illinois hit 21-of-22 from the free throw line to set a new Kohl Center record for single game FT percentage (.955). The old record was .941 by Michigan in 2004. Harris led the way, going 10-of-10 from the line, and Smith was 6-of-6.

Smith's double-double was her 13th of the season, the most in the conference. Illinois out-shot the Badgers 44.4 percent to 41.0 percent, but were beaten on the glass by a 36-27 margin and allowed the hosts to score 21 second chance points on 19 offensive rebounds.

Anderson finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds for Wisconsin (12-11, 5-8).

"We just have to know right now that we have ball games that we have to finish," Law said. "It shouldn't really come down to the last seconds of the game. We know there were things that we needed to address throughout the game. I'm just trying to keep us focused because the season's not over. Anything's possible in this league. We've got to learn that we can control our own destiny."

Illinois will now have the weekend off before returning to Assembly Hall on Thursday, Feb. 21, to host Penn State at 7 p.m. in a nationally televised Big Ten Network clash.