Jan. 9, 2005
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. - Tiffanie Guthrie poured in a season-high 23 points and Angelina Williams had 22 as Illinois (10-3, 2-1) improved to 6-1 on the road with a 73-65 win at Northwestern Sunday afternoon. It was Illinois' 10th consecutive victory over Northwestern and its seventh straight win at Welsh-Ryan arena. The 6-1 road start is the best in school history.
"It's always good to get wins on the road in the Big Ten," said Williams. "We're 2-0 now (in Big Ten away games) and we need to keep the momentum going on the road and also take care of business at home."
Illinois led by 13 at halftime and by 15 early in the second half, but the Wildcats went on a 20-4 run to take a brief 43-42 lead midway through the half. The Illini responded, however, with a 9-0 run of their own - six of which came from Williams - to regain control of the game. NU would never get closer than five points from that point on as Illinois cruised to the eight point victory.
"That's the second time we've had a big lead at halftime and have kind of relaxed," said Guthrie of letting NU back into the game. "We need to get better at putting teams away and not letting them gain confidence. I think we did a good job of picking each other up after they made their big run and we came away with a `W'."
In the first half, the teams traded leads early on and the hosts took a 19-17 lead near the 10-minute mark, but the Illini would hold the Wildcats scoreless for a span of 7:21 while running off 15 consecutive points of their own - including nine straight by Guthrie - to open up a 32-19 lead. Each team would get a bucket in the final minutes to make the score 34-21 at the break.
In addition to Williams and Guthrie's heroics, Danyel Crutcher and Janelle Hughes were both in double figures as well with 11 points each. Illinois held a 39-29 rebounding edge on the hosts, led by Audrey Tabon's career-high tying nine boards. Williams and Maggie Acuna each dished out five assists for the Illini, who shot 29-62 (.468) from the field, 1-5 (.200) from three-point range and 14-22 (.636) from the line.
Northwestern (4-13, 1-3), which shot 24-51 (.471) from the field, was led by Ifeoma Okonkwo's 19 points and Sarah Kwasinski's 14.
The Fighting Illini will remain on the road to face Penn State (8-6, 3-0) this Thursday in University Park, Pa. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT. The next home game for the Orange and Blue is next Sunday, Jan. 16 at 2 p.m. vs. Wisconsin at the Assembly Hall.
