Having lost eight of its last nine games, the Illinois women’s basketball team (12-12, 3-9 Big Ten) is hungry to get back into the win column and will try to do so at Indiana (13-10, 3-9) on Wednesday.

Similar to Illinois, the win column has become a stranger to Indiana of late. The Hoosiers have dropped eight of their last 10 games, and the two Big Ten foes have combined for a record of 3-15 in their last nine games this season.

With two teams fighting to rise out of the bottom of the Big Ten standings, this game could simply come down to who has more intensity.

“Every team wants a win,” junior guard Kyley Simmons said. “It’s just going to come down to who wants it more, who’s fighting more and who has more heart.”

Indiana is led by its guard play, specifically freshman guard Tyra Buss, who leads the Hoosiers in scoring and is second in assists.

Head coach Matt Bollant said he recruited Buss before she committed to Indiana and has been impressed by her play.

“She’s a pretty good player,” Bollant said. “She can shoot and goes to the rim really well and does a lot of good things offensively.”

To limit Indiana’s guard-orientated offense, Illinois will look to maintain its conference-leading turnover margin by bringing consistent ball pressure. Bollant listed four aspects of the game that he wants the Illini to focus on, and one of them is defending opposing guards individually.

Simmons seems to be up to the challenge of guarding some of Indiana’s best wing players.

“We can get out and pressure people, intimidate them and make them turn the ball over,” Simmons said. “The more we can do that, that’s just going to help our offense that much more.”

Indiana has just two players over 6-feet tall who average more than 20 minutes per game, so Illinois will try to start off with looks to sophomore forward Jacqui Grant and freshman center Chatrice White in the paint.

White has fouled out in three of her last four games, so she will try to get back on track against a smaller Indiana team.

“They’ll double team in the post,” Bollant said. “But certainly, we need to get a lot of touches inside and start there.”

The rest of Bollant’s four keys to success are finding good shots on offense, leaving the zone to help on the defensive end and limiting fouls. He said they executed on all four in their win over Minnesota on Thursday.

Bollant also said he wants some of the older players on the team to start being leaders, and it looks as if Simmons has bought into that role, as well as Bollant’s four keys.

Joey can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @joeyfigueroa3.