Kobe Brown scored 13 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished six assists to lead the Missouri Tigers past the Northern Illinois Huskies 54-37 Thursday night in Columbia, Mo.
Jordan Wilmore scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Tigers (2-1) in an on-site game that is part of the Jacksonville Classic.
Trendon Hankerson led the Huskies (2-1) with eight points, but he shot 3-for-17 from the field overall and 0-for-9 from three-point range. Keshawn Williams scored seven points but missed 9-of-10 shots from the field.
Missouri bounced back from an 80-66 loss to Kansas City at home with a strong defensive effort. The Tigers held the Huskies to 24.1 percent shooting (13-for-54) from the field.
Missouri led 24-21 at the half then scored 26 of the game’s final 32 points of the game to pull away.
The Tigers started well, opening with a 7-2 lead while pounding the ball inside to the 7-foot-3 Wilmore. But their offense stalled as they turned the ball over nine times in the first half and missed 10 of 11 attempts from 3-point range.
The Huskies went on a 19-9 run and moved ahead 21-16 with 3:19 left in the half.
But the Tigers countered with easy transition baskets while scoring the last eight points before the break to take a three-point lead.
Neither team scored during the first 3:34 of the second half as this defensive struggle continued.
Consecutive three-point jumpers by Zool Kueth broke the ice and put Northern Illinois up 31-28.
Wilmore threw down dunks on back-to-back possessions to trigger a 14-1 run that put Missouri up 42-32.
The Tigers finally put the game away with Boogie Coleman’s 3-point jumper with 2:57 left and Brown’s tip-in with 1:52 to play.
–Field Level Media
