Women’s wheelchair basketball notches two weekend wins

Illinois' Shelley Chaplin (12) passes the ball during the wheelchair basketball game against Chicago Sky for the Illini Classic Wheelchair Basketball Tournament that was held in the ARC on Saturday, November 7, 2009.
Chris Davis

It may be too early into the season to tell, but in just one day, the Illinois women’s wheelchair basketball team said they feel it has already discovered its team identity.

“Today, we found that our calling card for our team is our intensity and our defense,” women’s coach Stephanie Wheeler said.

Actually, it seemed to be more of intensity on defense that gave the Illini a 54-24, 51-24 sweep over the Chicago Sky at Saturday’s Illini Classic basketball tournament.

And when asked what the key for Illinois victories was, team captain Shelley Chaplin kept it simple.

“Our defensive pressure, our ball pressure,” said the senior, who recorded a game-high four steals, tied with junior Bridie Kean.

“But of course there’s always things that we can improve on there (in our defense),” Chaplin added.

Throughout the full 20 minutes of the first quarter in game two, the Illini maintained a full-court press.

But even when the Sky managed to break through, they fought another battle against the shot clock and were forced to shoot outside the paint simply in order to beat the clock.

Forced shots were exactly what Wheeler wanted of her defense, as Illinois kept the Sky to just 31 percent shooting in the first half.

“Defensively, we have to be hard on chairs and really push people out wide from the basket because if not, we’re going to get scored on,” Wheeler said.

In about the last 10 minutes of the quarter, Illinois kept the Sky in a scoring drought and headed into the second half with a 33-8 lead.

The Illini scored 20 points off of the Sky’s 23 turnovers.

Offensively, Illinois took care of the ball, committing only four turnovers, but shot under 40 percent from the field and is what Wheeler called a “work in progress.”

“Our offense still needs a little tweaking,” said Chaplin, who led the Illini with 16 points and seven assists.

Chaplin and Kean complemented each other down the passing lane, with three of Kean’s six assists going to Chaplin.

Junior Tiffany Wilkinson remained a loud, defensive commander but also racked 15 points.

But on a savvy upperclassman team, freshman starter Rachel Voss put up a solid four points and two steals and is a player who Wheeler says has a lot of potential.

For Voss, the intensity at the collegiate level has her feeling better conditioned and more confident.

“I feel so much better as a player and as an athlete even in our first tournament than I’ve ever been in my life,” Voss said.

Saturday’s competition was a warm-up for the Illini, who will travel to a tournament next week at the University of Texas at Arlington, where Illinois will face both women’s and men’s teams.

“Our goal is to not lose to a women’s team, and I feel like we put our mark on this game,” Chaplin said.

“We go to Texas next weekend and play men’s teams, so that will be a huge challenge for us, and hopefully we’ll grow more as a team and get some good experience.”