Jan. 14, 2001
Box Score
East Lansing, Mich. -
What a difference a week makes. Eight days ago, the Illini faced a stretch of four games in eight days, one against a top ten team and the next three on the road. Thanks to great teamwork and balanced scoring, the Illini swept the week's games to move to sole possession of second place in the Big Ten. Sunday Illinois wrapped up that stretch with a convincing 72-59 victory over Michigan State in East Lansing.
Michigan State came into the contest with the top-ranked defense in the Big Ten. The Spartans were first in the conference in rebound margin, second in scoring defense and fourth in field-goal defense. The Illini responded by scoring 38 first-half points, out-rebounding Michigan State for the game (32-31) and building at one time a 20-point second-half lead.
Illinois' spot shooting was tremendous. Time and again the Illini hit from long-range, posting a season-best eight three-pointers. At one time Illinois was 7-for-10 from three-point range. No one was hotter than Aminata Yanni. The freshman poured in a career-high 17 points and made 4 for 7 shots from behind the arc. Shavonna Hunter used two treys to help post nine points.
Dawn Vana is playing as well as any one in the Big Ten right now. Sunday she capped her week by scoring 12 points to go along with four rebounds, three assists and one steal. Vana was 5 for 7 from the field. For the week Vana scored 42 points, grabbed 24 rebounds, had nine assists and made 17 of 29 from the field (.586).
Yanni scored 10 of Illinois' first 19 points, including six on two three-pointers as Illinois built an early 19-5 lead. Michigan State cut the gap to three at 27-24, but would never get any closer. Illinois out-scored MSU 11-2 in the final 2:21 of the half to take a 38-26 lead heading into intermission. Junior Allison Curtin (13 points) fed Yanni for a three-ball in the corner, then used her 199th career steal to score a driving lay-up. Hunter put an exclamation point on the half with a three-pointer.
Michigan State (8-8, 2-3) never really threatened in the second half. Illinois completed a 19-4 run by scoring eight of the first ten points in the second half thanks in part to Curtin and Hunter treys. The lead reached as many as 20 points at 65-45.
The Illini have won three straight conference road games for the first time in school history and posted its first four-game winning streak since February and March of last season. With a 4-1 conference record, Illinois (9-8 overall) moves into sole possession of second place in the Big Ten and have a week off before hosting league-leading Purdue on Jan. 21.
