Women’s basketball completed a successful road trip to the East Coast last week.

The Illini defeated St. Peter’s 81-55 last Saturday and St. Joseph’s 64-50 last Tuesday to move to 3-0 in the young season.

For Illini head coach Theresa Grentz, the trip east was a homecoming. A native of Glenolden, Pa., Grentz received her first coaching position at St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia.

Senior forward Angelina Williams led the way for the Illini in both games. Against St. Peter’s, Williams poured in

19 points and against St. Joseph’s on Tuesday she recorded a game-high 22 points.

In Tuesday’s game against St. Joseph’s, the Illini had trouble adjusting to the Hawks’ stalling tactics and trailed most of the half. Down 22-16 with 3:23 left in the first half, senior guard Jer‚ Issenmann sparked a 10-2 Illinois run with a three-pointer. The end of the run was topped off with a three-pointer by Williams at the buzzer to give the Illini their first lead since the opening minutes, 26-24, heading into the break.

“When we ran that inbounds play at the end of the first half, scored on the three, and took the lead into the locker room – then you could say to them, ‘Look, that was their game plan and who is winning the game?'” Williams said. “That was really big because it gave us some momentum.”

The Illini never looked back, cruising to a 14-point victory.

“St. Joe’s wanted to hold the ball and shorten the game and we wanted to run, but we didn’t jack up shots,” Grentz said. “I was very, very pleased with how calm we stayed. We stayed with our game plan, we kept the ball moving.”

In Saturday’s game against St. Peter’s, the Illini got off to a slow start again, but they recovered nicely for the 26-point victory.

Freshman forward Danyel Crutcher, who is from nearby Orange, N.J., did not disappoint the more than 50 friends and family who came to watch her play in Jersey City, N.J. Crutcher had a 12-point, nine-rebound and four-block performance.

The Illini allowed St. Peter’s to jump out to a 13-8 lead to start the game, but the Illini battled back to take a 20-19 lead with 6:27 to go on a three-point play by junior Brittany Daugherty, who returned to action Saturday after missing the last two games with a knee injury. The Illini went into halftime with a 34-27 lead.

In the second half, up 41-38, the Illini would break the game open with a 9-0 run, led by Williams’ six points, to push the lead to 50-38. Minutes later, with the score 64-48 in favor of the Illini, Williams intercepted two straight St. Peter’s passes at midcourt and laid in two easy buckets to put the game away.

The Illini are scheduled to travel to Wisconsin-Green Bay on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. for their next matchup.