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Illinois hands Badgers women 10th loss in 12 Big Ten basketball games | Wisconsin Badgers Women's basketball
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Alex Wittinger is methodically working her way up the all-time scoring list for the Illinois women's basketball team.
And she made a big jump Sunday when she scored 24 points to lead the Illini to a 78-68 victory over the University of Wisconsin at the State Farm Center.
Wittinger, a 6-foot-1 senior, scored 16 of her points in the third quarter as the Illini (10-14, 2-11 Big Ten Conference) took command and went on to snap their nine-game losing streak.
"We tried a lot of different things on Wittinger," UW coach Jonathan Tsipis said. "She's a very, very good player, somebody who's an All-Big Ten caliber kid. But it was a game of H-O-R-S-E for awhile. She got a lot of easy rhythm jumpers and she does a good job. She's a really good player, but we've got to be able to step up and at least make her shoot a contested shot every time or not let her get the ball in such easy places."
The 24 points were the most for Wittinger in a conference game this season and moved her up two spots to No. 10 on the Illini's career scoring list with 1,522 points. She also grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked three shots.
Senior Marsha Howard, coming off her career-high 30-point effort against Michigan last Sunday, scored 19 points to lead the Badgers (11-13, 2-10). Freshman Imani Lewis had 16 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
"We've got to have some more production from our perimeter kids," Tsipis said. "We've got to have people help Imani and Marsha. They go for 35 and 14 (rebounds) and then collectively the rest of the group doesn't even go for that, as far as scoring the basketball."
The Badgers led by as many as six points in the second quarter and trailed just 42-40 at halftime. They led briefly at 52-51 before a layup by Wittinger put Illinois ahead to stay midway through the third period.
One of the big factors in the game was rebounding. The Badgers had a 27-16 advantage on the boards in the first half, but the Illini turned that around with a 25-11 advantage in the second half.
"It's amazing when you outrebound them by 11 in the first half," Tsipis said. "It's not only rebounds, but rebounds when the shot clock is really deep. It gets them another possession and it gives the home team a huge boost. It gets the crowd back into it and you have to guard for 45 to 60 seconds."
The Badgers were without redshirt freshman Alex Luehring, who didn't make the trip because of illness.
min fg-a ft-a rb pf a to pts
Karlis 34 3-7 1-4 5 1 4 3 9
Howard 39 5-16 9-13 7 4 1 2 19
Lewis 22 8-12 0-0 7 5 0 2 16
Van Leeu. 29 2-4 0-3 3 1 7 0 4
Beverley 36 5-12 1-1 3 1 1 0 11
Gilreath 18 2-6 0-0 3 1 1 2 6
Mathiason 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Laszewski 19 1-4 1-2 7 2 0 0 3
Bragg 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Crowley 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 26-61 12-23 38 16 15 10 68
Wittinger 31 11-16 2-2 12 4 1 2 24
Andrews 26 3-8 3-4 6 3 0 1 12
Beasley 35 6-14 3-3 4 0 9 1 16
Rice 25 2-6 0-0 2 4 2 0 4
Joens 8 0-0 0-0 0 2 1 0 0
Ephraim 15 0-1 0-0 4 2 0 0 0
Robins 6 1-1 0-0 1 1 1 0 3
Scott 26 3-12 1-2 4 1 0 0 10
Biazek 9 2-4 0-0 1 1 0 0 4
Kilpatrik. 5 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Shewan 14 1-4 3-3 2 3 3 2 5
Totals 29-66 12-14 41 21 17 9 78
Team totals include rebounds and turnovers
Wisconsin 21 19 19 9 — 68
Illinois 23 18 25 11— 78
3-pointers — W 4-13 (Karlis 2-3, Gilreath 2-6, Lewis 0-1, Van Leeuwen 0-1, Beverley 0-2), I 8-24 (Andrews 3-7, Scott 3-8, Robins 1-1, Beasley 1-3, Shewan 0-2, Rice 0-3). Blocks — W 4 (Karlis 2, Laszewski 2), I 6 (Wittinger 3, Scott 2, Andrews 1). Steals — W 3 (Howard 2, Karlis 1), I 4 (Rice 1, Scott 1, Shewan 1, Wittinger 1). Field goal percentage — W .426, I .439. Free throw percentage — W .522, I .750. Att. — 1,844.
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