Jan. 29, 2006
Box Score
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Illinois started fast, but No. 7 Ohio State showed it was worth its lofty ranking with a 75-49 win over the Illini in front of 11,622 fans at Value City Arena. Janelle Hughes led Illinois with 14 points on 6-for-13 shooting, and Maggie Acuna had a game-high eight rebounds.
The Illini opened the game on an 8-2 run after hitting four of their first five shots, but Ohio State tied the game at 12 before using a 10-0 run over 3:07 to take a 22-12 lead it would never relinquish. Reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Jessica Davenport scored five of her game-high 19 points during that stretch and the Buckeyes took a 34-20 lead into halftime.
"We were in the game," Illinois coach Theresa Grentz said. "We were doing what we needed to do, we were paying attention to the scouting report."
But OSU blew the doors open coming out of the locker room, hitting six of its first seven shots of the second half and running out to a 50-26 lead at the 15:27 mark of the period. During that run, the Buckeyes hit four of five three-pointers while the Illini missed seven of their first 10 shots of the half.
Illinois never recovered, unable to cut the lead to less than 20 points and seeing the OSU lead balloon to 28 with 6:53 remaining. For the game, the Buckeyes hit 48 percent of their shots (29-for-60) and 11-for-17 from three-point range (.647). Meanthile, Illinois managed only 35.6 percent from the floor (21-for-59) and was unable to find the range from downtown, going 0-for-9 on the day.
The Illini led early by collapsing inside on the 6-foot-5 Davenport, a first-team All-American a year ago. Then Ohio State's perimeter shooters and defense began to take over. The Buckeyes shifted to a zone 4 minutes into the game, and Illinois had difficulty penetrating or getting an open shot the rest of the way.
The Buckeyes went on a 13-2 run - Davenport accounting for seven points - to build a 22-12 lead. After the Illini pulled to 22-16 on short jumpers by Hughes and Erin Wigley, Packer started a 9-0 run by hitting consecutive 3-pointers.
Ahead 34-20 at the break, the Buckeyes scored 13 of the next 17 points to push the lead to 47-24. Packer hit two more 3s and Ashley Allen added another for Ohio State.
"There's a lot of basketball left for us to play and as far as I'm concerned we can do this," Grentz said. "I need to get this team motivated. It's my job to teach them how they need to get things done."
Up Next: Illinois returns home to face No. 14/12 Minnesota at 7 p.m. Thursday at Assembly Hall. The game is the Illini's last against opponents it plays only one time this season.
