Every young basketball player dreams of a moment like this: With only a few seconds to play the score is tied and the game is in your hands. You stand at the free-throw line with the ball, staring straight ahead at the basket, which at that moment seems farther away than it ever has before.

You try to bring it closer to you because, after all, these shots should be freebies. For the Illinois men’s basketball team, it’s been well documented that these shots have been anything but that. In fact, they’ve been quite costly.

For the Illini women this season, it’s been a different story.

The Illinois women’s basketball team leads the Big Ten Conference and ranks sixth in the nation in free-throw percentage. The team is shooting 79.0 percent from the line and is on its way to breaking the program record of 75.5 percent.

“To me, those are points that no one’s in your face. It’s just you and the basket,” head coach Jolette Law said. “(When) you’re a good free-throw shooting team, you feel that you can be in any ball game. I’m just trying to get my kids to notice how significant it is to get to the free-throw line.”

And Law’s players have taken notice.

“There are free throws for a reason,” junior Lori Bjork said. “They’re free and you try to make them, and we’ve been fortunate to make a lot of them this year.”

Senior guard Rebecca Harris will go down as one of the best free-throw shooters in Illini history. Following Sunday’s win against Purdue, Harris is ranked second on the career free-throw percentage list at 82.8 percent, right behind Lisa Robinson’s career mark of 83.3, set in 1982.

Law said if she had to choose one player on her team to put on the line, it would definitely be Bjork. The guard has gone 58-of-66 from the charity stripe this season, connecting on 87.9 percent of her free throws, just off Robinson’s single-season record of 88.8 percent set in 1980-81.

On Jan. 31, it was Bjork’s two free throws with 12 seconds left on the clock that sealed the win over then-No. 19 Ohio State. Bjork also sank two free throws with 11 seconds remaining on Feb. 4 at Michigan to secure a 66-61 Illini victory. On Feb. 14, the Illini set a Kohl Center record in Madison, Wis., hitting 21-of-22 from the line against the Badgers. At 95.5 percent, it was the highest free-throw percentage for a team at the Kohl Center and would have been the all-time Big Ten record if Bjork did not miss one of her throws.

The team’s leading scorer, sophomore center Jenna Smith, is shooting 78.7 percent from the line this season. Smith said Law always tries to simulate critical situations in practice, telling players they are at the line and down by one with no time left on the clock.

“After every drill or after we do something that takes a lot of energy, (Law) will be like, ‘All right, get to the line,'” Smith said. “Usually, free throws are not when you are standing there like, ‘I’m ready, all right, I can breath.’ Usually they’re when we’re tired and when we’re exhausted.”

Meanwhile, the men have shot a measly 61.0 percent from the charity stripe so far this season, placing them last in the league and 330th in the nation out of 341 teams. Their opponents, on the other hand, have been making 72.0 percent of their free throws. Trent Meacham is the only usual starter for the men shooting more than 70 percent, as he has made 81.8 percent of his shots from the line this season.

On Jan. 19 against Purdue, the men’s team shot itself in the foot, making just 47.6 percent of its free throws.

“It’s cost us, obviously,” Weber said at the time of the team’s 10-of-21 performance from the line. “Even if you make another four or five, it’s a different game today. It’s been like that all season. And when they miss, I think it also takes their spirit out.”

The Illini were unable to upset Eric Gordon’s Hoosiers on Feb. 7 at home because of their failed efforts at the line. Senior Shaun Pruitt missed the front end of a one-and-one with four seconds left in regulation, which would have given the team a win. At the end of the first overtime, a familiar scene unraveled as Pruitt missed two free throws with two seconds left. Pruitt could have won the game for the Illini, who later fell apart and lost 83-79 in double overtime.

“Between myself, Shaun (Pruitt) and Chester (Frazier), we can go down the line and shoot anywhere from 85 or 90 percent in practice,” senior Brian Randle said about their free throws. “It’s never a problem. We just have to take it upon ourselves to do some mental conditioning.”

Weber said he’s tried everything to remedy his team’s free-throw woes.

“We have tried every way that I know,” Weber said following its loss to Purdue. “I’ve called people, we’ve come in extra, the people that follow us (send us) letters, all the e-mails, all the calls, we’ve come in second practices.

“Weighted ball shooting, form shooting, elbow shooting and just anything that you can think of, and we haven’t been able to get over the hump. It’s a little bit contagious, I guess, but it’s cost us, obviously,”

So why have the women had success at the line while the men have not?

“I really don’t know,” Law said. “It’s really up to a lot of individuals. When they go up to the line it’s mental focus. A lot of people have different mechanics and different techniques.”

For the women, getting to the line is like a reward.

It provides a chance for the players to catch their breath and get more energy for the next possession.

“When we’re struggling, or if I’m struggling, if we get to the free-throw line it kind of always builds your confidence back up,” Smith said.

Law believes that most of it is mental, though.

“You get up to that line and it’s just you and the basket,” Law said. “Sometimes the basket can be this small and sometimes the basket can be this wide.”

Although many people give a lot of credit to three-pointers and slam dunks, it’s the free throws that can make or break a game. It’s the free-throw shots that a team will either remember or try to erase from its mind following the game.

“A free throw can lose a game – clearly, with the boys,” Smith said. “Free throws are always just a big part of the game and making sure that you hit them, to either tie it or to give them that one point at the end of the game, can make the world’s difference.”

Jeff LaBelle contributed to this story