After her Illini suffered a controversial loss in Madison one month ago, Illinois women's basketball head coach Jolette Law was well-prepared to take on Wisconsin a third time this season.
What better way for Law and the No. 9 Illini to rid the bitter taste than to eliminate No. 8 Wisconsin (9-9 Big Ten, 16-13 overall) from the Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Illinois (8-10, 17-13) raced to a 13-4 lead in the first five minutes and cruised to a 73-58 victory in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
Senior guard Jolene Anderson ended her storied UW career in true Big Ten Player of the Year fashion, scoring 24 points and 11 rebounds and tallying her 26th career double-double. Anderson also finished with team-highs with five assists and three steals.
I thought Jolene Anderson had a great performance,"" head coach Lisa Stone said. ""She did everything she could to win the game for us, but we needed a little bit of help.""
Anderson, with 2,291 career points, became the sixth-most prolific scorer in Big Ten women's basketball history.
""Any award I get just goes on the back burner,"" Anderson said. ""It hurts that our basketball team didn't get the 'W,' but you just have to move on.""
Wisconsin freshman guard Alyssa Karel had 10 of Wisconsin's 12 bench points - a place the Badgers have found great second and third scoring options of late.
""Alyssa Karel played well for a freshman in her first Big Ten Tournament,"" Stone said. ""Danielle Ward got loosened up in the post, but it wasn't enough firepower tonight.""
Illinois' sophomore center Jenna Smith finished second in the Big Ten in scoring and finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds against the Badgers. Guard Rebecca Harris and forward Lacey Simpson added 19 and 15 points, respectively.
""It's not easy to score those kind of points with that type of defense, but it wasn't enough,"" Stone said. ""We needed scoring from other places and more consistently, and we just didn't get it.""
The storyline of the first round of the Big Ten Tournament was rebounding. Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, who out-rebounded Wisconsin 46-36 Thursday, all won the battle of the boards and moved onto the second round.
""We knew we had to crash the boards. That was the thing that would turn it in the first half,"" senior guard Janese Banks said. ""I thought we were right there. We knew we weren't shooting the ball particularly well so we knew we wanted to take high percentage shots and just play together.""
Illinois will move on to play No. 1 Ohio State (13-5, 22-7) Friday.
Wisconsin has put in a bid to host the Women's National Invitation Tournament should the Badgers not be selected for NCAA tournament, March 17. The Badgers made it to the finals of the 2007 WNIT before falling to Wyoming in the championship.
- uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report
