After losing by 33 against Penn State on Wednesday, the Illinois women’s basketball team never trailed against Indiana on Saturday.

In front of its highest paid crowd of the season with 3,088 fans, Illinois (16-10, 9-5 Big Ten) moved into a third-place tie in the Big Ten after a 73-60 victory over Indiana (11-16, 2-12). The win clinched Illinois’ first above-.500 record in the conference since the 2002-03 season.

“Third and fourth place get byes, which is huge going into the Big Ten Tournament,” Illinois head coach Matt Bollant said. “Not that you can’t win four games in four days, but it certainly is taxing and very difficult. All of us want to be playing in the NCAA tournament, so with this win we guarantee a top-six finish. This should give us a great shot at the NCAA tournament.”

Illinois improved its record to 9-1 in games after a loss this season.

“You learn a lot about a team the game after a loss,” Bollant said. “We’ve been really good throughout the year (after) games that we lost, especially a game like Penn State, where we didn’t play real well. We came out with great energy and great confidence.”

Senior forward Karisma Penn led Illinois with 25 points, six rebounds and three steals. She also made several clutch jumpers down the stretch to fend off Indiana runs.

“Part of leading is making plays, and Karisma and I thought we did that throughout the second half,” Bollant said. “To go 10-for-14 from the field and make plays, get the ball in her hands a lot where she wanted it, (we were) really aggressive attacking the rim.”

Despite shooting 33.3 percent from the field against Penn State, Illinois rebounded to shoot 47.3 percent from the floor against Indiana on two days rest. The Illini also forced 25 Indiana turnovers while mixing up the defensive strategy. Illinois usually starts in a man-to-man defense and then switches into the Buzz defense late in games, but against Indiana, the Buzz was used early going, a 2-2-1 full-court press also gave the Hoosiers trouble advancing the ball.

“We wanted our team to be aggressive,” Bollant said. “To play that way you have to be aggressive. We wanted to see if we could get them on their heels a little bit to start, and I feel like we did.”

Although the Buzz rattled Indiana in the early going, Indiana head coach Curt Miller said Illinois’ man-to-man was even more effective.

“We struggled with their high-pressure man-to-man,” Miller said. “We did a nice job against the Buzz, their man-to-man pressure because they can switch 1-5 and they can pressure anywhere on the court with all five starters, they’re a really good man-to-man team. And that’s what’s underrated. This myth about the Buzz that everyone writes about, their man-to-man is good and deserves a lot of credit.”

Illinois came out with the energy it was missing in its last game against Penn State, beginning the contest on a 7-0 run.

By the under-16 minute media timeout, Illinois already led 11-3 and Indiana had yet to attempt a field goal inside the arc. The Hoosiers struggled to make interior passes, already turning the ball over four times at that point.

“I thought we were a little bit hesitant when we first got started tonight, a little bit on our heels and not a great first four minutes,” Miller said. “They came right after us with the Buzz.”

Indiana didn’t make its first two-point basket of the game until senior guard Jasmine McGhee made a jumper at the 13:52 mark.

Illinois made four of its first five attempts from behind the arc after sophomore guard Ivory Crawford drained her second 3-pointer of the game with 13 minutes remaining in the half, expanding the Illini’s lead to 20-11.

Back-to-back buckets by senior forward Karisma Penn gave Illinois a 38-25 lead at the 3:39 mark.

Illinois entered halftime with its largest lead of the game at 42-28. While Illinois shot 53.8 percent from the field in the first half, Indiana shot only 37.5 percent.

Indiana entered Saturday’s game averaging 16.0 turnovers per game, but Illinois forced 16 miscues in the first half alone.

Penn led Illinois in the first half with 14 points, three rebounds and two steals, shooting 6-for-8 from the field. If not for McGhee’s 16 first-half points, making up for over half her team’s total, Indiana might have entered the break with an even bigger deficit.

Illinois started off the second half slow, not scoring until a Penn layup at the 16:25 mark. Indiana began the half on a 10-2 run after senior forward Linda Rubene made a layup to bring the Hoosiers within six points at 44-38 with 15:44 remaining in the half.

With the score at 46-40, sophomore guard Taylor Tuck nailed a 3-pointer off an assist from sophomore guard Alexis Smith to put Illinois up nine with 14:41 remaining in the game.

Although the second half was tightly contested, with Indiana outscoring Illinois by one point, the Hoosiers were unable to bring the game within three possessions after Tuck’s shot. Illinois continued to answer each Indiana run to maintain a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Michael can be reached at [email protected].