Mizzou loses Braggin’ Rights to Illinois, drops third straight game
Watch the postgame news conference in the player above.
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMIZ)
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. This was only Mizzou's second Braggin' Rights loss in six years.
True freshman Trent Pierce made his first collegiate start in this contest and posted a nice performance. He recorded a career-high 12 points and added two steals over 20 minutes of action.
Sean East II was Mizzou's leading scorer, finishing the game with 18 points after shooting 47% from the field.
As a team, Mizzou shot just 22.2% from three-point range and made just 39.2% of its shots in the contest.
Shannon Jr. scored 30 points for Illinois and his teammate Quincy Guerrier posted 28 points of his own.
Up next - Dennis Gates and company wrap up Mizzou's non-conference schedule with a home game against Central Arkansas. Tipoff for that contest is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 30 at Mizzou Arena.
