After a sloppy first half, the Illinois women’s basketball team scored 48 points in the second half to cruise to an 86-39 victory against DT3 in its only exhibition game of the season on Sunday.

DT3, a collection of former collegiate players from the Midwest, challenged the Illini in the first half, but new head coach Jolette Law made sure the second half was different.

Law used the first half to try out different rotations and impart her defensive philosophy on the court.

The Illini were up by 17 at the half but looked lost trying to adapt to Law’s style of play.

“(At halftime) coach told us to pick up the defense – there is a heavy emphasis on defense this year,” senior Audrey Tabon said. “We had the offensive part, we just had to pick up the defense.”

Junior Lori Bjork resumed her role as the leading scorer for the Illini, contributing 15 points, 13 of which came in the second half.

Sophomore Jenna Smith added 14 points and grabbed seven boards.

Senior Rebecca Harris came off the bench to put up 13 points and six defensive rebounds in 30 minutes of play.

Tabon said she was just excited to be back on the court after missing the entire 2006-07 season with a torn ACL in her right knee.

“I have as much confidence in the knee as I am going to have at this point,” the senior said.

Playing 14 minutes, Tabon scored four points and pulled down five rebounds. She was able to play alongside Smith for the first time, something she was looking forward to since last season.

“It’s easy playing with Jenna because she is unstoppable,” Tabon said. “It makes my job a lot easier.”

Law said her intentions for the game were to just try out different rotations on the court.

“I’m just trying to work on some combinations,” Law said. “My main thing is looking for a rotation of eight or nine players. I’m just looking to see who responds in certain situations.”

Before the Illini open up regular season play at Eastern Illinois on Friday, Law said the team will continue work on adjusting to her style.

“We are going to work on a lot of rebounding drills and we are going to add some more defensive schemes,” Law said. “We definitely need to improve on rebounding, have better ball pressure, cut down on turnovers and get the ball more inside.”