st. LOUIS – They will be proud of this in Colombia.
Missouri controlled the Braggin’ Rights rivalry renewal from the opening chips Thursday night, passing through Illinois to win 93-71 in front of 18,452 fans at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
With a 6-0 lead in the opening minutes, the Tigers controlled every aspect of the game and never lost again.
Illinois’ nine turnovers in the first half led to 19 of Missouri’s 51 halftime points. The Tigers shot a staggering 59% of his shot from the field in the first frame as he connected on 20 of 34 attempts.
Meanwhile, the Illinois made only 9 of 28 attempts in the first half for an icy 1-15 shot from across the 3-point line.
Missouri was paced in the first half by an 18-point effort from D’Moi Hodge, with Kobe Brown scoring another 15 points.
Illinois was led early by Dane Dyinger and Terrance Shannon Jr., both of whom entered the locker room with nine points, but had only two assists in the first 20 minutes.
It didn’t get much better in the second half, especially early on.
At one point, the Tigers made 9 of their first 13 attempts from the field to increase their lead to 74–39.
Illinois did a little digging to stop the bleeding there and finished the second half 16 of 34 from the field. However, the damage was done as Missouri had its biggest win in the series, with a 76–58 victory in the team’s first meeting at the Enterprise Center on December 22, 1994.
Brown led all scorers with 31 points, while Shannon edged Illinois’ scoring row with 22 points.
For the first time since 1981, the rivalry won’t win at least two games in a row after Illinois won 88-63 on December 22, 2021.