During the postgame celebration, Illinois’ Blandon Ferguson kissed the huge Braggin’ Rights trophy.
Roger Powell hugged it. Coach Bill Self was probably more inclined to kiss freshman point guard Dee Brown, but thought better of it.
The Illini assured themselves a happy holiday indeed, manhandling Missouri 85-70 Saturday at the Savvis Center to claim their third straight victory in the border-war series. With senior Brian Cook starring and the irrepressible Brown getting one of his lightning-quick hands into pretty much everything, 12th-ranked Illinois turned in its most complete performance of the year to improve to 8-0.
Asked if there was any phase of the game in which the Illini did not dominate the 11th-ranked Tigers (6-1), Brown paused and grinned.
“I think we won all aspects,” said Brown, who had a game-high 21 points to go with a game-high seven assists and added five rebounds and a steal, despite aggravating a bruised left shoulder that forced him to the sidelines.
“I’ve said all along Dee was maybe the most important guy we’ve signed,” Self said. “Not because of the speed or his points, but because he affects everything we do. He affects recruiting, he affects the mood in the locker room, he affects our toughness. He has his handprint on everything we do.”
Self held his breath when Brown went down with 18 minutes 13 seconds remaining and the Illini leading 41-36.
“What was I thinking?” the coach asked. “Get up!”
But after writhing in pain on the court, Brown rested a few minutes and returned with a vengeance.
“It’s killing me,” Brown said of the injury he sustained Thursday in practice. “But playing in front of fans like that (a crowd of 22,153), I wasn’t going to stay out. I’m tougher than that. I played football. I’ve had worse injuries than this one.”
Cook toughed it out in his own way. Facing constant double-teams inside the lane, Cook muscled his way to 17 points, including a perfect 10-of-10 at the line. He also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, keying Illinois’ best showing of the season on the boards. The Illini outrebounded Missouri 42-32, 24-17 on the defensive end.
“I just think our adrenaline got flowing,” said freshman forward James Augustine, who had five rebounds and a blocked shot. “We knew Missouri was a good rebounding team. We had to be tough to stay in the game.”
Staying in the game was never a problem. Illinois parlayed some great long-range shooting–six of its first seven baskets were three-pointers–into a 39-32 halftime lead.
The Illini took control for good, 59-41 with 13 1/2 minutes to go, thanks to a 9-0 run when Cook was on the bench with three fouls.
“I think coach prepared us pretty well for that,” said freshman guard Deron Williams. “We practiced for two weeks with Brian on the [second string] so we’d get used to playing well without him.”
Missouri didn’t do nearly so well without its big man, 6-foot-9-inch center Arthur Johnson, who picked up two early fouls and had no answer for Illinois’ double-teams. He finished with eight points and three rebounds.
With no inside punch, Tigers guards Rickey Paulding (17 points), Ricky Clemons (16) and Jimmy McKinney (15) fired away from the perimeter. A last gasp 9-2 run got the Tigers within 61-50, but the Illini pulled away again.
Sean Harrington’s layup with two minutes left gave Illinois its biggest lead of the game, 83-64. Harrington had 11 points, and Luther Head added 10.
“I think we’re a better team than we looked today,” said Missouri coach Quin Snyder. “It’s too early to call them great, but we played a good team today. I just didn’t anticipate losing this way. It needs to hurt, because it does hurt.”
Self was surprised by the degree of his team’s domination. But he cautioned against reading too much into the margin, achieved on a neutral court.
“I love where we’re at,” Self said. “We didn’t deserve to be among the Top 25 teams based on what we had back. I knew we’d be good eventually, but we still have to take the show on the road and prove we can win in other arenas.”
