Iowa holds on for victory

IOWA CITY - The Iowa women's basketball team built a huge lead and then hung on to defeat Illinois 77-67 Sunday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa led by as many as 29 points early in the second half, but Illinois cut the lead to 64-56 following a furious 25-4  run. The Illini trailed by only four at the 3:28 mark after back-to-back baskets by freshman forward Kersten Magrum. But Kachine Alexander, who led all scorers with 24 points, made eight free throws and pulled down two key rebounds in the final 2:45 to help Iowa pull out the victory and improve to .500 in the Big Ten conference (7-7) and 14-11 overall.

Besides Alexander, Jamie Printy and Kamille Wahlin, returning from a concussion, also finished in double figures, adding 17 and 16, respectively.

The Hawkeyes used a 20-0 run midway through the first half to take a 31-6 lead at the 8:23 mark and grab early control of the game. They were up 47-20 at halftime after shooting 45.2 percent from the field -- including 9 of 16 3-pointers.

But the home team went cold in the second half to allow the visitors to creep back into the game and make the Valentine's Day crowd nervous.

Illinois fell to 13-12 overall, 5-10 in the conference.