Feb. 18, 2007
Box Score
Bloomington, Ind. - Illinois dropped a damaging 81-68 road contest to the Indiana Hoosiers Sunday afternoon at IU's Assembly Hall. The Illini led by nine late in the first half and by as many as seven early in the second half, but shot just 21 percent in the final 20 minutes to fall to 17-9 overall and 7-7 in the Big Ten.
"Obviously, we were a different team in the second half," said Illinois head coach Theresa Grentz. "You have to give a lot of credit to Indiana; they played hard and took us out of our game."
Sophomore Lori Bjork hit two three-pointers in the first half, giving her 76 treys on the season to break Krista Reinking's single-season Illinois record for threes made in a season of 74. Bjork finished with 14 points and was among four Illini in double-figures. Freshman Jenna Smith had a monster day, scoring 16 points and pulling down a career-high 16 rebounds, seven of which were offensive. She also added three blocked shots. Sophomore Chelsea Gordon (15 points) and junior Danyel Crutcher (11 points) were also in double-figures for the Orange and Blue.
As Indiana (16-11, 5-9) tried to whittle away a 44-37 deficit in the early stages of the second half, Illinois still led 57-56 with 11:23 remaining after a lay-up by Jenna Smith. But the Illini would not score in the next six-and-a-half minutes, a stretch in which the Hoosiers went on a 10-0 run to open up a nine point lead with under five minutes to play. The Illini would not get closer than seven the rest of the way.
Indiana's Jamie Braun (27 points) and Kim Roberson (24 points) killed the Illini all day, combining to make 17-of-27 shots and 8-of-13 three-pointers while piling up 51 points. Braun's scoring total shattered her previous career-high of 18 points, while Roberson tormented the Illini for the second time this year. Averaging only 8.8 points entering the game and hitting just 39 percent of her shots, Roberson hit 9-of-12 overall and 3-of-4 from three-point land and has now scored 52 points in two games against Illinois this season. In those two games, the sophomore hit 20-of-29 (.690) from the field and 7-of-11 (.636) from behind the arc.
Illinois played well offensively in a fast-paced first half, shooting 50 percent from the field and jumping out to a 40-31 lead with less than three minutes to go in the half. However, the Hoosiers battled back to within five at the break (42-37) before taking over in the second half.
Illinois finished the game shooting 36 percent overall and 25 percent from downtown while getting out-rebounded 40-36. One bright spot for the Illini was hitting 21-of-24 from the free throw line (.875), however the Hoosiers countered by getting to the line 32 times and hitting 24 of those (.750).
"Just like I said on Thursday (after the win over Iowa), you can't get too up or too down after these games," Grentz said. "We have to comeback and play Thursday and then again on Sunday. We can't dwell on this one."
Illinois closes the regular season with a pair of home games against ranked opponents. Thursday night, the Illini will host #24/24 Michigan State (21-6, 12-2) at 7 p.m. They'll then close the season by welcoming #16/15 Purdue to Assembly Hall on senior day, Sunday, Feb. 25 at 2 p.m.
