Feb. 8, 2001

Champaign, Ill. -

Illinois used a 10-0 run right before halftime and a 17-0 run midway through the second half to help dispose of a very game bunch of visiting Northwestern Wildcats, 65-45, Thursday night in front of 3,391 fans at Assembly Hall.

Allison Curtin scored 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting and added five assists and three steals to pace the Illini who move back over the .500 mark for the season at 12-11 and remain in fifth place in the Big Ten with a 7-4 conference mark.

Redshirt freshman Cindy Dallas had her second career double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds and helped Illinois out-rebound Northwestern 42-25, the Illini's biggest rebounding margin of the season. Freshman Iveta Marcauskaite also reached double figures with 10 points.

The story was the Illini's stingy defense. The 45 points given up by Illinois were the fewest ever by an Illini team in Big Ten play in school history and just the third time since 1980 that Illinois has given up as few as 45 points. The other two times were against Puerto Rico -Mayaguez (95-37) on Nov. 28, 1997 and at Bowling Green (74-42) on Dec. 29, 1990.

Northwestern made just seven field goals in the second half and scored just nine points in the first 15 minutes of the second half. The Illini put on two impressive runs to spell the difference in the game. Northwestern kept it close for the first 16 minutes, holding leads of 7-2, 15-13, and 26-25. Illinois held Northwestern scoreless for the last 3:39 of the first half while scoring the final ten points of the half to lead 35-26 at the break. Marcauskaite and Dawn Vana each scored four points in the run.

After Northwestern's Michelle Zylstra scored for Northwestern (4-18, 0-12) with 12:58 left in the game, Illinois went on a 17-0 run culminated by a short jumper by Holly Wilson. In all, the Illini defense held Northwestern off the scoreboard for 8:15. That's when Curtin did the majority of her damage. Curtin fed Hunter for a three-pointer, converted two three throws, came up with two steals and two lay-ups off the fast breaks, and assisted on another basket. For good measure sister, Suzanne Curtin hit a lay-up and played a season-high 12 minutes.

Tami Sears (12 points) and Dana Leonard (11 points) paced Northwestern in scoring. Illinois takes the road Sunday at Michigan. Tip-off is 2 p.m.