Dec. 18, 1999

Box Score

CHICAGO (AP) - Freshman Kristi Faulkner hit a short runner in the lane with 2.7 seconds left Saturday as No. 19 Illinois beat No. 20 Kansas 61-59, making Illini coach Theresa Grentz the school's career leader in women's coaching victories.

Grentz is 84-48 in her fifth year. Laura Golden had an 83-89 record at Illinois from 1984-90.

"I like any time we win," said Grentz, who coached at Rutgers for 19 years, where she was 434-150. "There is no such thing as a bad win."

But the Illinois record?

"That's nice, too. I plan on being here a while," she said.

Illinois took a 59-55 lead on two free throws by Tauja Catchings with 1:37 left.

Brooke Reves scored for Kansas at 1:15, and after a charging call on Illinois' Shavonna Hunter, the Jayhawks got the ball back and Jennifer Jackson tied the game with a jumper with 27.4 seconds left.

Illinois took a timeout with 13 seconds left. Faulkner then drove through the lane and hit the short shot. Kansas rushed the ball down the floor and Lynn Pride misfired on desperation shot at the buzzer.

"Coach set up a play for me and it wasn't there," Faulkner said. "Susan Blauser set a nice pick and I just came off and was looking to get the victory. It was a no-lose situation. If we missed it, we were going to overtime."

Faulkner led the Illini (8-3) with 19 points, Catchings had 13 and Hunter scored 11 to go with a school-record 10 steals.

Hunter, like Faulkner, is a freshman.

"They are going to be with me for a while," Grentz said. "I think our future, where we are going, is going to be very bright."

Leading scorer Allison Curtin missed her first seven shots and finished with eight points on 3-of-10 shooting. Illini starting forward Kylie Martin was forced out after spraining her left ankle six minutes into the game and didn't score

Pride scored 18 to lead Kansas (6-2), Jackson added 15 and Reves had 12. The Jayhawks led 55-50 with 4:25 let before Faulkner made a shot in the lane and then hit a 3-pointer to tie with 3:35 to go.

"We were hoping to finish it out, but we made a couple of critical errors," said Kansas coach Marian Washington, whose team was slowed by a flu bug.

The game was the second half of a United Center doubleheader. Illinois' men beat Kansas 84-70 earlier in the day.