Karisma Penn has stepped up to the foul line 548 times in her four years at Illinois. Of those 548 shots, Penn has only converted 334, about 60 percent. But, after working to improve during her college career, she was able to convert 14 attempts on Thursday at Assembly Hall into 12 points.

“I was delighted,” Penn said. “If I could’ve just danced at the end of the game I would’ve broke it down.”

Illinois took advantage of Penn’s 30-point, 10-rebound performance and defeated Wake Forest 95-82 in the ACC/Big Ten Women’s Challenge.

Penn and sophomore Ivory Crawford combined for 56 points, as two Demon Deacons, Lakevia Boykin and Dearica Hamby, scored their career-highs, combining for 52 points.

Penn’s and Crawford’s performances were aided by point guard Alexis Smith, who finished with 14 assists.

Freshman McKenzie Piper started in junior Kersten Magrum’s place for the fourth straight game, but Magrum was able to play for the first time since dislocating her shoulder in a Nov. 15 loss to Bradley. Wearing a bandage on her left shoulder, Magrum scored a season-high 11 points while grabbing six rebounds. She had come in averaging four points per contest.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, I’ve come back from a lot of injuries, so I kind of understand how to go in there and just take what’s given, not force too much and just try to help my team,” Magrum said. “I was just happy I was able to do that for 29 minutes tonight.”

Illinois led 48-42 at the half. The team’s 48 points was a season-high for the first half. Crawford led the Illini in scoring despite being limited to only 11 minutes because of three first half fouls, including two in the first five minutes.

Wake Forest took the lead with just under nine minutes remaining in the game after Illinois led for the past 27 minutes.

“I thought we showed some resiliency, which is a word we’ve talked a lot about with these young ladies,” head coach Matt Bollant said. “When they made a run and took the lead, to be able to close the game on that run, with that kind of energy was great.”

After scoring only 50 points against Iowa State on Sunday, Illinois responded by scoring the most points against a BCS opponent since 2001. 

While Illinois had success offensively, Bollant wasn’t happy with the team’s defense in either its man-to-man or “buzz” defense.

Illinois beat Wake Forest in the 2009 ACC/Big Ten Challenge — the only other meeting between the two programs. Penn had 15 points and five rebounds in that win.

Despite Illinois’ efforts, the Big Ten remained winless in the challenge with the conference posting a 5-7 record this year. 

Illinois’s win was its second straight game in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge after defeating Clemson last season.

Johnathan can be reached at [email protected] or @jhett93.