March 15, 2001

Box Score

Champaign, Ill. - The Illinois women's basketball team opened play Thursday night in its first ever Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) with an impressive 96-79 victory over visiting Wisconsin-Green Bay. The Illini advance to meet Mississippi State, a 77-73 victor over Georgia Tech on Thursday.

Illinois will host the second round game Saturday night 7 p.m. at the Assembly Hall. Tickets go on sale Friday morning at 9 a.m. Prices are $8 for public reserved, $5 for student reserved, and $3 for general admission (C section). Attendance was a key factor. Illinois drew 2,278 fans compared to 1,315 for Mississippi State.

The Illini used defense to get out to a quick early start, forcing 16 Green Bay first-half turnovers. Allison Curtin hit three milestones and nearly a fourth in the game. She had three steals giving her sole possession of first on the Illini single-season (98) and career steals (248) list. Curtin also had five rebounds for an even 500 boards for her career and scored 21 points to give her 1,499 total points in her three years as an Illini. She needs 37 more points to move into fourth on Illinois' all-time scoring list.

Shavonna Hunter was actually the story defensively. She had eight steals for the contest, the second most of her career and two off her own school record of 10 set last season. The 96 points allowed were the second most allowed in UWGB school history. Hunter also scored a career-high 23 points.

Illinois had its most productive three-point shooting night of the season, canning 9 of 13 attempts from the arc, led by the tallest player on the floor Thursday night. Freshman Iveta Marcauskaite scored 22 points, made 9 of 12 from the floor, and sank 3 of 4 three-point attempts. The native of Lithuania now has 373 points for the season, tied for second on the freshman scoring list, 27 points off the pace of Allison Curtin, who scored 400 points as a freshman in 1999. Marcauskaite also had a career-best four blocks, which give her 27 blocks on the season, nine shy of the Illini freshman record.

Although Green Bay made some runs in the second half, Illinois was never threatened in the contest. The Illini bolted to leads of 14-4 and 29-11 before settling on a 40-23 halftime lead.

The second half was entertaining and gave the Illini fans reason to return. Both teams scored 56 points in the second half. Illinois scorched the nets to the tune of 72.4 percent (21 of 29) and made 7 of 9 shots from beyond the arc. Illinois also was 7 of 8 from the line in second half for a combined .833 mark from the charity stripe for the game (15 of 18).

Every time it looked as if the Phoenix were getting back into the game, Illinois answered. UWGB closed the gap to 46-33 only to see the lead increase to 63-46. Mandy Stowe, the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Player of the Year, had a game-high 25 points for Green Bay, and Sara Boyer came off the bench to net 20.

The Illini take a 17-15 record into the contest with Mississippi State (16-13).