Serah Williams, Ronnie Porter shine; Short-handed Wisconsin women's basketball beats Illinois.

The Wisconsin women’s basketball team was down two starters Sunday, but it didn’t matter.

Led by sterling performances from sophomores Serah Williams and Ronnie Porter, the Badgers defeated Illinois, 67-61, in front of 3,691 at State Farm Arena in Champaign Illinois, for their first Big Ten win of the season.

Freshman guard D’Yanis Jimenez, who injured her left knee against Nebraska on Thursday, didn’t play. Neither did senior guard/forward Brooke Schramek, who missed for an undisclosed reason.

BOX SCORE: Wisconsin 67, Illinois 61

Nonetheless Wisconsin trailed for less than 2 minutes in the contest, built an 11-point fourth quarter lead and fought off an Illini comeback to get the victory..

Williams, a 6-foot-4 forward, finished with 27 points, a season high, on 10-for-17 shooting, grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds and tied her career high with five blocks.

Porter, meanwhile, posted 14 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and five steals.

Wisconsin improved to 8-6 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten. The team returns to the Kohl Center Wednesday to face Northwestern (6:30 p.m. tip off).

“I think this is such a huge statement for our team” Wisconsin coach Marisa Moseley said after the game on the Badgers Radio Network.

Here are four reasons the Badgers scored their first Big Ten win.

Serah Williams, Ronnie Porter played big

Let's start with the obvious. Williams and Porter have to play well on most nights for the Badgers have a chance to win, but that was especially the case without Schramek and Jimenez.

Both players arguably had their best game of the season.

In addition to flirting with a triple-double, Porter posted a 2-to-1 assist turnover ratio and never left the game.

Williams, meanwhile, tied a career high with 37 minutes. Given her role as the anchor to UW’s offense and defense, her ability to stay available was critical..

The Badgers' best quarter was the fourth

Wisconsin trailed, 42-41, heading into the fourth quarter but went on a 16-4 run to take a 57-46 lead with 3 minutes 42 seconds to play.

Williams had six points during that run. Seniors Natalie Leuzinger and Halle Douglass and sophomore Sania Copeland also scored during the run.

Illinois, however, hit 3 three-pointers during the next 2 minutes to cut the deficit to 59-55 with 2:06 to go. Three times during the remainder of the game Illinois made it a single-possession game only to see Wisconsin respond from the free throw line. UW went 7 for 8 from the line during the final 2 minutes.

There were two plays of note during that stretch.

* Douglass rebounded Copeland’s three-point miss with the Badgers ahead by three and hit one of two from the free throw line to push the team’s advantage to 61-57 with 1:19 to play.

* Porter stole the ball from Illinois’s Makira Cook with 30 seconds to go and UW ahead by two points. Porter made two free throws to push the lead to 63-59 with 26 seconds left

Wisconsin hit the boards

The Badgers are one of the worst teams in the conference when it comes to rebounding, but Sunday they tied a season-high with 16 offensive boards. That led to 13 second-chance points, which tied the team’s second-highest total of the season. Their work on the glass was especially important the first half when it helped the team compensate for 30% shooting..

Overall Wisconsin owned a plus-12 advantage in rebounding, which tied its second-highest total of the season.

Moseley didn't have to go deep into the bench

Due to the aforementioned absences, Wisconsin played with a very short bench. Four players – Porter, Williams, Leuzinger and Copeland – played at least 35 minutes. Douglass saw action in 30, her highest total since returning from a knee injury. That beat her previous high by 11.

Those five players played the entire fourth quarter when the team shot 50%, its highest percentage of the day, and scored 26 points. That's 11 more points than it scored in any other quarter.

“It’s like I told them in the locker room. It doesn’t matter who we have, we have to believe those five guys on the court are going to be able to get stops and scores,” Moseley said. “I felt like we had a will to win and we kept making plays. … I love in a game like this we were able to finish.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin women's basketball outlasts Illinois for first Big Ten win