ST. LOUIS — Missouri opened Wednesday night’s Braggin’ Rights game in man-to-man defense, and Illinois immediately went to work. Like in Saturday’s win against BYU in Chicago, the Illini made it a point to get the ball inside to either Mike Thorne Jr. or Maverick Morgan.
Results were mixed in the early going — a couple heat-check three-pointers from Jalen Coleman-Lands and Malcolm Hill don’t exactly count — but Illinois was able to establish its inside-out offense at the start of the game.
“Their inside guys hurt us,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said. “Morgan played really, really well, and Thorne got some buckets.