March 2, 2006

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INDIANAPOLIS - Seventh-seeded Illinois overcame early turnovers and Northwestern's Ifeoma Okonkwo's hot second-half hand with powerful inside play for a spot in Friday's quarterfinal with a 60-49 win Thursday. Illinois and Northwestern are no strangers when it comes to Big Ten Tournament play. Illinois won 66-43 in last year's first-round collision, but the 2006 meeting was much more competitive than the box score reveals.

The Illini (15-13, 7-10 Big Ten) advance to face second-seeded Purdue in game six on Friday at 6 p.m. ET while Northwestern falls to 6-21, 2-14 in the Big Ten.

Illinois stretched its lead to 13 in the second half with a 3-pointer from Chelsea Gordon with 11:00 remaining to extend the score to 43-30, and looked poised to punch their quarterfinal ticket with an easy win. But Okonkwo, a Wildcat senior, scored 15 of her game-high 26 points in the second half to keep the Wildcats well-within striking distance.

Staring at an 11-point deficit with a little more than 10 minutes left in the game, Okonkwo almost single-handedly leveled the game. She scored 11-straight points from everywhere on the court to pull the Wildcats within two at 45-43. On the next possession, Okonkwo went for the tie but her layup rimmed out. Sophomore Melissa Miller grabbed the rebound and netted a remarkable hook shot from under the basket to tie the game 45-all with three and a half minutes to play, capping a 15-2 Northwestern run.

But the well-rounded Illini scoring attack never relinquished the lead. On the ensuing play, Wigley sank a fade-away jumper and drew the foul. She converted the free throw to put the Illinois ahead by three - the closest Northwestern would cut the margin.

The Illini frontcourt combined for 33 points and 25 rebounds. Forward Danyel Crutcher led the Illini with 14, and Wigley added 11 points and seven grabs. Audrey Tabon, who also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, was one of three Illini scoring eight each. Her tally marked the third most rebounds by an Illini player in the conference tournament. She also owns the second-best total with 12 grabs in last year's quarterfinal matchup against Michgian State. The third-best offensive rebounding team in the league, Illinois out-rebounded Northwestern 43-36 for the game.

Halfway through the first half, Northwestern took advantage of the Illini's early miscarries. The Wildcats put together a 5-0 run to take a 19-15 lead during a string of four straight Illinois turnovers. With a little more than three minutes left in the first period and the Wildcats leading by three, Wigley cut off a sloppy pass from Kristin Cartwright and ran with the fast-break opportunity. Wigley's layup rimmed out, but Crutcher was there for the putback and drew the foul. Crutcher nailed the free throw to tie the game at 23.

On the next possession, Hughes drilled a 15-foot pull-up jumper to give the Illini the lead for good at 25-23. With an emphatic momentum swing from Crutcher's 3-point play, the Illini surged on 7-2 run to lead halftime 30-25 halftime lead. The Illini countered 11 first-half turnovers with 46.2-percent shooting.

The Illini assembled a 15-4 scoring streak, including  6-of-6 from the foul line in the final minute, to close the game with a victory. Illinois shot 38.2 percent for the game, including 15-of-21 from the free-throw line. On the other side of the ball, the Illini defense held the Wildcats to 33.9 percent from the field.