For the fifth straight year, the Braggin’ Rights belong to the Illini. Illinois held off a second half charge by Missouri to beat the Tigers 70-64 in St. Louis Wednesday night. MU trailed by as many as 17 points early in the second half but battled back to make the game much closer than many expected. Jimmy McKinney’s jumper with 7:44 to go cut the lead to 49-44, but that’s as close as Mizzou got the rest of the way. Linas Kleiza led the Tigers with 25 points and pulled down seven rebounds. But Kleiza also led the team with five turnovers—Mizzou turned the ball over 14 times to go with just nine assists. Thomas Gardner, Marshall Brown and Jason Horton all pitched in eight points apiece. With the loss, Mizzou dropped to 6-5 on the season while the top-ranked Illini improved to 11-0.
