The Missouri Tigers made just two, three-pointers in the first half and turned the ball over 16 times in the opening 20 minutes as Illinois used a nine and 10-point run to open a 20-point halftime lead in a 70-64 win in the 37th annual Braggin Rights game in St. Louis on Saturday night.
Illinois leads the overall series 25-12 in games played in St. Louis.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood admitted to me that he used game video and inside information from Missouri’s late win over Stephen F. Austin on Tuesday to game plan for the Tigers. Underwood is in his first year at Illinois after a season at Oklahoma State. Prior to that, he led the program at SFA.
Mizzou was exposed in that game and Underwood used strong perimeter defense to limit the Tigers in the first half.
The Tigers were just 8 of 24 shooting and 2-10 in the first half from beyond the arc. Cuonzo Martin told me he felt his team settled for outside shots in the first half.
Mizzou cut the lead to six briefly in the second half but using a seven-man rotation and zero points off the bench, the Tigers ran out of gas late.
Kassius Robertson led the Tigers with 22 points after being held to two in the first half. Jordan Barnett added 19 points and 10 rebounds. Barnett was the only spark for the Tigers in the first half, scoring 14 on 5-of-9 shooting.
#Mizzou postgame following #BragginRights https://t.co/QeyPqpYfW4
— Bill Pollock (@missourisports) December 24, 2017