Jan. 21, 2001
Box Score
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illinois women's basketball team showed that it has come a long way since the beginning of the season Sunday. The Illini also learned that there is still work to do to battle for the Big Ten championship in a 72-64 loss to Big Ten front runner and sixth-ranked Purdue.
Dawn Vana hit some early jumpers to put the Illini in front 11-8. Vana scored nine of the first 11 Illini points, including seven points in a 9-2 run that put Illinois on top. She finished with 11 points to along with four assists.
Anne O'Neil helped Illinois maintain the lead by scoring six of her 10 points in succession on two mid-range jumpers and two free throws as it was 19-15 Illinois with 9:50 to play in the first half.
Purdue battled back to take a 24-23 lead and held a 32-27 edge at halftime. The Illinois defense forced the Boilermakers into 14 first-half turnovers and limited them to just .333 shooting in the first 20 minutes. Purdue, however, stayed in the game and eventually pulled away in part to a strong rebounding effort. The Boilers out-rebounded Illinois 28-20 for the half and 47-34 for the game. A total of 23 of those boards came on the offensive end.
Several times it looked as though Purdue was going to pull away. Purdue's Kelly Komara hit a three to start the second half and give her club its biggest lead at the point in the game, 35-27. Allison Curtin, who led the Illini with 15 points, responded with a trey of her own.
Camille Cooper (13 points, 10 rebounds) scored some inside buckets and Komara connected on a three to help extend the Purdue lead to 47-36. Illinois responded by getting steals and attacking the basket. Two inside shots from Iveta Marcauskaite completed a 10-0 Illini run and brought Illinois to within 47-46 at the 10:26 mark that brought the crowd of 6,606 to their feet.
With Purdue in dire straits, it turned to All-American Katie Douglas. The senior buried a three then came up with a steal and lay-in to make it 52-46. That as it turned out was the biggest series of plays in the game. Illinois cut the lead to four points only once after that.
Iveta Marcauskaite was huge in the second half for Illinois. Marcauskaite scored all 20 of her points in the second half. The freshman from Lithuania scored 15 of Illinois' final 20 points and assisted on a Shavonna Hunter three-point shot in that stretch.
Illinois still maintains a virtual share of second place in the Big Ten. The Illini will take a 9-9 overall record and 4-2 mark in the conference in Thursday's game with Wisconsin at Assembly Hall. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
