At points in the season, women’s basketball has shown brilliance – defeating formerly ranked UCLA and snapping Louisiana Tech’s home winning streak – the nation’s second longest. Then at times the Illini have been bad, losing to Wisconsin-Green Bay by 29 and Penn State by 35.

The question on Wednesday night will be which Illini team decides to show up at the Assembly Hall against No. 8 Michigan State.

“Every game we come out focused mentally,” said sophomore center Brittney Daugherty. “It’s just sometimes the shots aren’t up and the rebounds aren’t there. To avoid those kinds of things we have to work on the little things to get better and that’s what we’ve been doing in practice.”

The Spartans come into Champaign riding a three-game winning streak, defeating No. 17 Iowa, Wisconsin and most recently No. 12 Minnesota. The Spartans are tied for second place in the Big Ten with a conference record of 4-1. Four of Michigan State’s five starters are averaging double digits in scoring.

“Michigan State is a great team,” said head coach Theresa Grentz. “They are not very deep; we want to focus on their match-up defense. They’ve had some good road wins, so they will be confident and be a formidable test.”

The Spartans present a big challenge for the Illini’s post players. The Spartans are led inside by Liz Shimek and Kelli Roehrig.

“We have five post players and we’re going to have to step up,” Daugherty said. “They average (43.3 rebounds per game as a team) so we’re going to have to box out their big girl, Roehrig, and our job will be to not let her touch the ball and prevent her from scoring.”

Grentz believes the Illini’s offense will be the key to the game. She said the play of junior point guard Maggie Acuna will set the tone for the evening.

“We need to be patient offensively,” Grentz said. “When we know what we want to do with the ball, we’ve done well. So we’re going to be counting on Maggie to lead the team and for the others to follow.”

For the Illini, a win would boost their hopes for an NCAA Tournament berth and chances of becoming nationally ranked.

“This is a huge game for us,” Daugherty said. “If we could pull out a win that would be a big jump for us in the rankings and it would build confidence for the rest of the season.”

Over Break…

Over the winter break, the Illini have been busy boosting their NCAA Tournament resum‚.

The Illini defeated then-No. 16 UCLA in Champaign 78-63. Then the Illini defeated Illinois State in Normal 81-71, a game in which the Illini came back from the Redbirds hitting six of their first eight three pointers.

Then the Illini rounded out the December portion of their schedule defeating Central Michigan and edging Michigan on a last-second shot by senior forward Angelina Williams.

The Illini dropped their Big Ten home opener to No. 22 Iowa 72-58, then defeated Northwestern at home, before suffering their worst loss of the season at Penn State.

The Illini are 11-4 overall, 3-2 in the Big Ten and are tied for fifth place in the conference.