Nov. 4, 2000

Champaign, Ill. - Illinois fans got a look at some of the old and some of the new in the women's basketball team's 77-63 victory over the Houston Jaguars in Saturday's exhibition tilt at the Assembly Hall.

Allison Curtin scored a team-high 28 points and 14 rebounds while making 8 of 11 free throws in the victory. That's a performance that Illini fans have become accustomed to over the past two years. The crowd of 4,354 also got a look at the potential of one of Illinois' top freshmen, Anne O'Neil, who added 15 points and made all six of her free throws.

Head Coach Theresa Grentz used a three-guard line-up much of the night with point guard Shavonna Hunter logging 39 minutes, O'Neil 35 and Curtin 33. Although she was pleased with how they responded, the coach cautioned, "We're going to need a little more help, because we can't have them playing those number of minutes night in and night out."

The always teaching Grentz has used the first three weeks of practice to groom leaders. Saturday she liked what she saw from juniors Hunter and Curtin. "One of the keys tonight was how Shavonna and Allison kept the team calm when the game got tight."

After taking a 34-24 halftime lead, the Jaguars outscored Illinois 17-3 to open the second half to take a 41-37 lead. That moment was a big test to see how the young Illini would respond. "When Houston got the lead, I thought this is a key point for us being as young as we are," said Grentz. "How we are going to handle this? I thought they stayed relatively calm. They hit a couple of shots, they got the ball back, and they defended. That was a tremendous boost for them. That's only going to give them more confidence,"

Illinois took the lead back for good 51-50 at 8:34 on a lay-up by O'Neil. The team responded by out-scoring the Jaguars 26-13 the rest of the way. The Illini got the job done on defense, forcing 28 turnovers, many of them leading to scores late in the game. Curtin led the way with seven steals. Hunter added four.

"This is the first team we've had here at Illinois who could press for 40 minutes and that was key for us to be there at the end."

Dawn Vana and Cindy Dallas started inside tonight. Dallas, dubbed the "Putback Queen" by her teammates, totaled 11 rebounds to go along with seven points. The team had just eight turnovers in the second half.

"It's the first exhibition game, the first we've had a chance to play as a unit," concluded Grentz. "Obviously there were a lot of positive things out there, but certainly from a standpoint of our last scrimmage and tonight's game, we've worked on some things and its shows."