Despite high scoring game, Illini has room to improve

Illinois' Karisma Penn is congratulated by team members as she comes in off the court during the second half of the game against Siena at Assembly Hall on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009.
Wesley Fane The Daily Illini

On Friday, 78 points and 50 percent shooting were not enough for the women’s basketball team to open its season with a win against Temple. The Illini responded Sunday by scoring 85 points on 63 percent shooting to defeat Siena.

Illinois’ field goal percentage Sunday would have been its best in school history had the Illini not missed two putbacks under the hoop in the final seconds of the game.

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Illini women's hoops dominates in home opener 

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• LIVE BLOG: Illinois Women's Basketball vs. Siena

The 85-53 win against Siena in the home opener helped lessen the disappointment of sacrificing a big lead against Temple (1-0) two nights earlier.

Illinois led Temple 74-58 with 5:51 to play Friday, but during the final stretch — in which Illinois gave away eight of its 28 turnovers — the Owls went on a 17-1 run to send the game into overtime, where the Owls came out on top 82-78.

On Sunday, there were no late-game runs by Siena.

“I think tonight my kids finally put 40 minutes together against a Siena team that, in the first half, you saw could shoot the ball extremely well,” head coach Jolette Law said.

The crowd of 2,012 saw a high-scoring game from a team that scored fewer than 50 points 10 times last season. On Sunday, the Illini had 50 at halftime.

“It’s fun when you play that way ... I definitely enjoy it,” senior Lacey Simpson said of the fast-paced, high-scoring style.

Illinois frustrated Siena (0-1) with its speed of play, stealing the ball 18 times and scoring 49 points off turnovers.

“This is what we’re trying to incorporate here,” Law said. “We’re trying to set the tone with Illinois basketball: letting our defense create our offense.”

Law also acknowledged that Illinois’ new high-scoring style and aggressive defense is fun to watch.

“I was getting excited; I wanted to play even,” Law chuckled. “One time, (Karisma Penn) was running, and she was almost running out of bounds. I wanted to get in and have her pass it to me.”

Penn was Illini’s leading scorer against Siena with 18 points. But the freshman was happier with the result of the game than her own stats.

“I just want to win,” Penn said. “At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if Lacey scores, if Jenna (Smith) has got 30, as long as we win, it doesn’t even matter.”

One player who didn’t contribute much to the Illini’s weekend performances was Destiny Williams. The highly touted freshman played seven minutes Friday and was absent from the Assembly Hall on Sunday.

“We’re dealing with some things with Destiny. It was the coaches’ decision not to have her play today ... Right now, it has nothing to do with basketball,” Law said.

Now sitting at 1-1 after the opening weekend, the Illini will head into another week of three-hour practices with room for improvement.

Illinois’ fast-paced style has yielded high-scoring games not just from the Orange and Blue but from its two opponents as well. The Illini gave up 82 points against Temple and 53 against Siena — more than Law would have liked.

“We don’t like people scoring more than 50 points on us,” Law said. “That’s just one of those things that’s going to be an Illini staple: We don’t want people scoring 50 points or more.”

But perhaps the biggest, and most surprising, area that Illinois showed weakness in was free-throw shooting.

The Illini cringed when asked about their 42 percent shooting from the charity stripe, but Law was confident that the Illini’s 10-of-24 free-throw shooting against Siena should be a one-time thing.