Illinois Women's Basketball Recap

Another week, another couple of losses for Illinois.

However, it was a banner week for arguably the best player on the Illinois Women's basketball team as Alex Wittinger broke the record books and cemented herself as an Illinois legend.

Against Penn State last week, she put up a rather impressive, unorthodox triple-double with 18 points, 10 rebounds and 11(!) blocked shots, setting the school record for blocks in a game and most blocks in a game at Bryce Jordan Center (home to the Nittany Lions). She also became the 29th player in school history to score 1,000 points in her career.

The Illini fell to the Nittany Lions, 68-59.

She was joined in defeat by Brandi Beasley (another promising development this season) with 15 points and Cierra Rice, who has turned into a nice third scoring option the last two weeks with 10.

For Penn State, it was Teniya Page leading the way with 18 points, followed by guard Amari Carter with 12.

Illinois hung tough in its second game of the week — and even had the lead at halftime -— but eventually fell to Wisconsin 70-61 on Sunday. The Badgers were led with a herculean effort by Suzanne Gilreath with 27 points.

Wittinger paced Illinois with 18 points and Beasley finished with 15 points. They also got a fantastic shooting effort from Petra Holesinska who tied Wittinger with 18 as well.

The Illini are currently at the bottom of the Big Ten standings, but I would recommend going to a game just to see Alex Wittinger and Brandi Beasley play. They are both worth the price of admission.

Illinois is back at it Thursday on the road against Nebraska.