Kofi Cockburn scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in just 29 minutes Wednesday night as Illinois routed Missouri 88-63 in the yearly Braggin’ Rights game in St. Louis.
Alfonso Plummer added 22 points, hitting three of the Fighting Illini’s 12 3-pointers. Trent Frazier scored 15 and Jacob Grandison dished out six assists. Illinois (9-3) had 20 assists on 33 made buckets and canned 56.9 percent from the field.
Jarron Coleman came off the bench to score 16 points for the Tigers (6-6). Kobe Brown added 13 points but made only 5 of 16 shots from the field. Missouri connected on just 36.5 percent of its field goals, including a miserable 6 of 23 on 3-pointers.
Leading by 14 at halftime, the Illini didn’t mess around to start the second half. Frazier kicked off a 12-0 run by canning consecutive jumpers and Plummer sank a 3-pointer. Cockburn added a pair of dunks, the second one resulting in a three-point play, for a 52-26 lead with 16:58 remaining.
Illinois kept pouring it on, expanding the margin to 37 on RJ Melendez’s layup with 7:16 left, as it got revenge for last season’s upset loss when this game was played in Columbia, Mo. as the result of a coin flip.
The Tigers led once for 16 seconds after Javon Pickett drilled a transition 3-pointer at the 17:46 mark of the first half to make it 8-6. Their next bucket didn’t come until about four minutes later, after the Illini rattled off 10 straight points.
Missouri couldn’t figure out a way to guard Illinois. Either the Illini punched inside to Cockburn and scored, or they spaced the floor and found one of a number of capable 3-point shooters to light it up from the arc.
The Tigers did score 11 straight points in a three-minute stretch of the first half, which briefly put them in contention. But Cockburn’s jumper initiated an 11-3 run that ended the half and gave Illinois a 40-26 cushion.
–Field Level Media
