The Illinois women’s basketball team appeared unfazed in its first of three games in six games Monday, defeating Wisconsin 60-53 at home to move into a three-way tie for third place in conference play.

“We’re really proud of our team,” Illinois head coach Matt Bollant said. “We’ve told them defense gets off the bus every night and defense can win you basketball games. (We) shot 31 percent from the field and yet we’re up 10-12 (points) going into the last couple minutes. It say’s a lot about our defense, just the energy that they played with.”

Senior forward Karisma Penn led the Illini with 26 points and 14 rebounds. Illinois (15-9, 8-4 Big Ten) is off to its best start in the Big Ten since the 1999-2000 season.

“That’s unheard of for us,” Penn said of securing a possible first-round bye at the Big Ten Tournament if its success as of late continues. “We always go into the Big Ten Tournament at the bottom and have to battle up.”

After defeating Wisconsin by eight points in its matchup on Feb. 3, the Illini led by the same margin in the early going Monday after a jumper by senior forward Adrienne GodBold at the 12:32 mark put Illinois up 13-5.

Illinois entered the under-six minute timeout with its biggest lead of the half, 23-13, behind a rowdy crowd that included members of the Illini football team. At that point, Wisconsin was only shooting 4-for-16 from the field and already turned the ball over nine times. GodBold nailed her second 3-pointer of the game out of the timeout, extending Illinois’ lead 26-13.

Wisconsin ended an over-six minute scoring drought when sophomore forward Jacki Gulczynski converted an and-one layup with 2:52 left in the half. The 13-0 run during the cold streak helped Illinois grab a 28-15 lead.

Illinois led 31-22 at half with the help of 16 points and nine rebounds from Penn. GodBold contributed 10 points and six rebounds in the opening stanza.

Both teams shot poorly in the first half, with Illinois shooting 31.6 percent from the field compared to 34.8 percent shooting by Wisconsin. Illinois stretched its lead despite rough shooting by making four 3-pointers in the first half and forcing 13 first half turnovers. Illinois also outrebounded the Badgers 26-17 in the first half.

Wisconsin came out strong in the second half, going on a 9-0 run to bring the score to 43-40 with 10:11 remaining in the half.

Illinois responded with a 13-3 run to extend its lead back to double digits at 56-43 with 4:14 remaining.

Although the Illini struggled from the field throughout thegame, shooting only 31.8 percent, Wisconsin’s 27 turnovers led to 24 Illinois points — many of which came in the Illini’s Buzz defense set.

Monday’s win marked the first Illinois sweep of Wisconsin since the 1999-2000 season.

Michael can be reached at [email protected] and @m_dubb.