Missouri loses fifth straight Braggin’ Rights game

This year’s Braggin’ Rights game provided an all-too-familiar scene on Saturday in St. Louis. Illinois came out playing ferocious defense and attacking offense, with Missouri seeming to start the game on their heels, almost surprised by the intensity of their opponent. Illinois seemed to want it more, seemed to embrace the rivalry more. The Tigers are a young team, but previous editions of the team have showed a similar result.

Illinois raced to a 20-point halftime lead. Missouri rallied gamely in the second half, but the deficit was too much, the Tigers’ turnover total was too high, and the Illini won 70-64. Missouri (10-3) has now lost five straight in the fun holiday rivalry game. Illinois (9-5) now leads the overall series 32-16, including 25-12 in the holiday rivalry games played in St. Louis.

Taking care of the basketball continues to be a problem for Missouri against decent teams, and the Tigers turned it over 21 times on Saturday. Even with the frenetic nature of this rivalry game, that’s way too many. Illinois committed just 10 turnovers.

Long-range shooting also doomed the Tigers. Both teams shot below 40% for the game, but the shooting from beyond the arc was a big difference. Illinois limited its shooting from outside, but made six of its 14 three-point attempts for a tidy 42.9 percentage. Missouri couldn’t or wouldn’t get much established inside, firing up 27 three-pointers, making just five, an 18.5% success rate. It was in stark contrast to the Tigers pouring in threes against Stephen F. Austin earlier in the week.

We’ll be spare with the “young team” excuses, as Illinois freshman Trent Frazier scored 22 points off the bench to lead his team. Junior Leron Black added 20 points for the Illini.

Missouri got scoring from its usual sources, with Kassius Robertson scoring 22 points and Jordan Barnett adding 19. Barnett also had 10 rebounds. But his shooting percentages were fairly pedestrian, and Robertson missed 9 of his 12 three-point attempts. A key three-pointer or two from Barnett or Robertson during the rally might have got the Tigers all the way back.

Missouri did get a spark from Blake Harris. The Tigers need someone to seize the point guard role, and Harris has the most upside of the players at that position. He had a feisty game, making some flashy plays, scoring 10 points and adding some rebounds and assists. He did get a technical for talking trash to an Illinois player, but that ruckus and the overall scene seemed to get him fired up, which could be a step toward him reaching his potential.

Overall, it was a disheartening loss. Illinois looked solid under first-year coach Brad Underwood, but I don’t expect them to be a Big Ten title contender or anything.

Missouri has a nice long break now until they start SEC play at South Carolina on Jan. 3 (8 p.m. on ESPN2). Then comes a big home game with Florida on Jan. 6 (noon on CBS).