Coming into Thursday's first-round match at the Big Ten Tournament, Illinois averaged just 40 percent shooting from the field this season—10th in the Big Ten. That stat didn't bother the Illini too much, though.
Facing the Wisconsin women's basketball team, Illinois came out in the first half with one the more impressive shooting performances in the conference this season. The Illini hit nine of their first 11 shots, including five-of-six from three-point range.
Trailing 10-0 early, the Badgers simply couldn't muster a comeback. Wisconsin did not score its first basket until almost four minutes into the game, and with just under 13 minutes remaining in the first half found itself down 23-8.
""I think we just weren't ready to come out and play,"" senior guard Alyssa Karel said. ""Came out, they got a big lead on us, and we didn't respond.""
At that point, Wisconsin woke up and rattled off 13 unanswered points, but another scoring drought over the final three and half minutes of the half left the Badgers down 28-21 heading into the locker room.
""Every time we got close enough, Illinois answered. But it's tough right now,"" head coach Lisa Stone said. ""It's a tough loss. This is a team that was optimistic about making a deep run in this tournament and given a chance at the bigger dance in a couple of weeks.
Early in the second half, Wisconsin found it nearly impossible to chip away at the Illinois lead. With 12:46 left in the game the Badgers were in afternoon, down 44-28.
Over the next eight minutes, Karel, determined not to make Thursday's game her final, went into offensive over-drive, hitting three three-pointers, to draw the Badgers to within four.
With 1:44 left, a Karel layup brought Wisconsin to within just three points, down 59-56.
Those would be the last points for the Badgers in the game—and likely the season—however, as Wisconsin missed a few opportunities late and lost its touch from beyond the arc.
Illinois junior Lydia McCully sunk four free throws late to seal the 63-56 loss for the Badgers.
McCully finished the contest as Illinois' top scorer with 17 points. Meanwhile, Wisconsin held sophomore Penn Karisma just nine points. Karisma had been averaging 18 points per contest this season.
Leading all scorers, however, was Karel, who finished her regular season career with 23 points, her seventh 20-point total this year. Fellow senior, forward Lin Zastrow, added 18 points. Zastrow's point total put her over the career 1,000-point mark, at 1,013.
A deep run in the Big Ten Tournament was likely the team's last hope at an NCAA Tournament bid. The Badgers will now wait for March 14 when WNIT selections are announced.
""It's an awfully special senior class, and I'm convinced we're not quite done playing yet,"" Stone said.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
