After suffering their worst loss of the season at Penn State last Thursday by a score of 76-41, the Illini bounced back on Sunday to defeat Wisconsin at the Assembly Hall 77-66.

The Illini topped their scoring output from the Penn State game in the first half alone with 42 points.

“When you lose the way we did, you feel awful,” said head coach Theresa Grentz. “We knew we had to get rid of it. I give the coaching staff credit for making sure it did not happen again.”

Grentz said the team’s positive attitude after the loss kept the Illini on track.

“Practice on Friday was excellent,” Grentz said. “Our assistant coaches stayed upbeat and positive. It is easy for a coach to discombobulate their team after a loss like that. I knew to stay calm and I didn’t say anything to the team until I knew what I was going to say.”

With the score tied at 24, senior forward Angelina Williams took control of the game. Williams scored all the points of a 7-0 run, putting the Illini up for good.

Williams recorded a game-high 28 points and gave most of the credit to her team’s offensive game plan.

“It was us executing our offense off screens,” Williams said.

As has been the story most of the season, the Illini fell behind early in the game. Illinois trailed 11-2 before going on a 10-0 run to erase the deficit. The run was capped off by an Erin Wigley jump shot, giving the Illini their first lead of the game with 13:51 remaining in the first half.

“We got off to another slow start,” Grentz said. “We called timeout to get back on track. Our team responded. We have responded like this many times this season. What I like about this group of kids is that they look at you in the eye and they want to do better; they just sometimes forget what they’re supposed to do.”

Throughout the game, the Illini were able to take advantage of their athleticism, outscoring Wisconsin 16-0 in transition.

“Like every game, we wanted to run,” said senior guard Tiffanie Guthrie. “We executed the offense well. We worked on our offense the last couple days of practice and went in with that as our main focus.”

In the second half, the Illini extended their lead to a game-high 17 points. The Badgers went on a 14-3 run to cut the Illini lead to six after a three pointer from Wisconsin guard Stephanie Rich, making it a 58-52 game.

After Wisconsin’s run, the Illini were reminded of the Michigan game on Dec. 30 in which they held a 41-27 lead at halftime but let it slip away before winning on a Williams last second jumper.

“Coach talked about that at halftime,” Williams said. “We wanted to come out and execute and finish the game. We let Michigan come back, and we did not want to let that happen again.”

Illinois answered with a 7-0 run. Guthrie, who finished the game with 16 points, recorded three of the Illini’s seven.

One of the keys for the Illini was getting to the free-throw line. As a team, they went 23-for-29, with Williams and Guthrie combining for 13 free throws.

Wisconsin went to the line 13 times less than the Illini, which was the difference in the game.

“Any time you shoot 50 percent (from the field), hit 79 percent of your free throws and get to the line 29 times, I’d say you have a good shot at winning,” Grentz said.

With the win, the Illini extended their conference record to 3-2 and are tied for fifth place with Purdue. Wisconsin fell to 1-5 in the Big Ten.

The Illini return to action on Wednesday when they host No. 9 Michigan State at the Assembly Hall at 7 p.m.