Braggin’ Rights belong to Illinois in 2023.
Mizzou Men’s Basketball fell to rival Illinois 97-73 at the Enterprise Center late Friday night. Dennis Gates’ team has now lost three consecutive games and has a 7-5 record heading into its final non-conference game of the regular season.
Noah Carter scored the first bucket of the game to put Mizzou on the board first 2-0, but that was the only lead the Tigers had in the contest. Illinois responded with an 11-2 scoring run to take an 11-4 lead at the 16:06-mark of the first half.
Illinois led by double-digit points for the majority of the first half and went into the locker room with a 49-24 lead over Mizzou. The Fighting lllini shot 50% from the field in the first half and nearly 37% from three-point range. Illinois also had three different players reach double figures before the break, including a team-leading 17 points from Terrence Shannon Jr.
Mizzou struggled to score in the first half. The Tigers made less than 25% of their shots before the break and were 1/17 from the three-point line. Carter and Tamar Bates were Mizzou’s leading scorers at halftime with six points each.
Despite a rough first half, the Tigers did outscore the Fighting Illini 49-48 after the break but left St. Louis with a 24-point loss.
Sean East II was Mizzou’s leading scorer, finishing the game with 18 points after shooting 47% from the field.