Jan. 4, 2001

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - Freshman Christi Thomas scored a career-high 24 points in her first game in almost a month to lead fourth-ranked Georgia to a 100-59 rout of Illinois on Thursday night.

Coco Miller scored 23 points and added six assists and four steals for the Lady Dogs (12-2), who won their 10th straight game.

Thomas, sidelined for four games because of mononucleosis, returned to action six minutes into the game, just as Georgia was pulling away from Illinois. She shot 9-of-12 from the field.

Anne O'Neil led the Illini (5-8) with 17 points.

Illinois, less than a week after an impressive 73-56 win at No. 14 Auburn, was overwhelmed early by Georgia's aggressive pressure defense.

The Illini trailed 10-9 after Allison Curtin's layup with 15:36 to play in the first half. But Georgia scored 11 straight points, and the game was practically out of reach for the Illini halfway through the first half.

During a four-minute stretch, Illinois went nine straight possessions without scoring and failed to even get a shot off in six of the those possessions. On three straight trips down the floor, reserve freshman center Iveta Marcauskaite walked once and had the ball stolen twice.

Marcauskaite, Illinois' leading scorer with 13 points a game, fouled out in nine minutes and finished with three points and seven turnovers.

The Lady Dogs scored 26 points off Illinois' 16 first-half turnovers. Georgia led 50-20 at the half, and the Illini never threatened in the second half.

The electronic scoreboard failed to operate until the second half. For the first nine minutes, the public address announcer called out the score after each basket until a portion of the scoreboard normally reserved for a giant school logo was reconfigured to list the score. The time was kept on the clocks over the backboards.

Miller moved into fifth on Georgia's career scoring list, passing La'Keisha Frett, who scored 1,850 points. Miller has 1,862, six less than twin Kelly's career total after her 12 points Thursday.