May 31, 2006
Tour of Italy Game 4 Box Score (PDF)
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Ivrea, Italy - The University of Illinois women's basketball team wrapped-up its Tour of Italy with a perfect 4-0 record after a 95-53 victory over Caffe Giuliano Ivrea Wednesday night. Junior-to-be Stephanie Chelleen had a game-high 20 points on 7-8 shooting to pace the Illini, who had five other scorers in double figures.
The hosts, with about 200 local children cheering them on, stayed close early, even taking a brief 11-9 lead with 3:20 to go in the first quarter, but the Illini finished the quarter with a 10-1 run and never looked back. Illinois led by 13, 42-29 at the break, but really turned on the jets in the second half.
The Orange and Blue dominated the third quarter, out-scoring Ivrea 28-6, to blow the game wide-open. The 42-point final margin was the last of the tour for Illinois, whose average margin of victory was 30.3 points per game. In fact, the team's margin of victory increased with each of the four games (20, 24, 33, 42).
Besides Chelleen's monster game, Danyel Crutcher had her second double-double of the trip with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Other Illini in double figures were Lori Bjork, who hit five threes to finish with 15 points, Erin McCarthy (12 points), Audrey Tabon (11 points) and Erin Wigley (10 points).
Once again, Illinois dominated the glass, out-rebounding the hosts by an astounding 62-23 margin. In the four games, the Orange and Blue out-rebounded its opponents by an average of 27.3 per game. Another bright spot was that the Illini had a tour-low 14 turnovers on Wednesday.
The game was last of Illinois' four-game Tour of Italy. On May 25 the Illini topped Romasistemi, 74-54, followed that up with a 74-48 win over Castellani Pontedera May 27 and then picked up an 81-48 victory over Sernarnivar Marghera on May 29. Chelleen led all scorers on the tour, averaging 12.3 points per game while shooting 19-28 (.678) from the field overall, including 14-16 (.875) in the last two games. Audrey Tabon was the other Illini who averaged double figures (10.5), while Danyel Crutcher (9.8), Lori Bjork (9.0), Erin McCarthy (8.3) and Erin Wigley (8.3) were all close.
Be sure to check out fightingillini.com for complete coverage of the women's basketball tour of Italy, including all daily updates, game recaps and photo galleries of the 11-day excursion.
