51ºÚÁÏ

Oh, the conditions inside were frightful. The rims seemed borderline spiteful.

And since Mizzou’s shots wouldn’t go, Illinois let things snowball and snowball and snowball to a 97-73 win over the Tigers.

A first half of frigid shooting doomed Missouri: The Tigers made one of their 17 3-pointers in the first half to go 10 for 42 from the field in the opening frame. They finished six for 27 from 3-point range and 29 for 74 from the field.

Point guard Sean East II led Mizzou in scoring with 18 points. Guard Terrence Shannon Jr. paced Illinois with a double-double of 30 points and 11 rebounds, helped by Quincy Guerrier’s additional 28 points.

MU coach Dennis Gates tweaked his starting lineup, adding freshman forward Trent Pierce to the frontcourt over forward Aidan Shaw after Pierce found some success late in Sunday’s loss to Seton Hall on the opposite end of the state. Pierce produced 12 points and four rebounds in his first career start.

The annual Braggin’ Rights rivalry game turned south quickly for Mizzou. It took the Illini, whose fans spilled into the black-and-gold half of the Enterprise Center, just 7:48 to open up a double-digit lead over the Tigers.

Forward Noah Carter provided a moment of optimism by scoring the game’s first points through a twisting hook shot coming out of a post-up, but that was the only lead Missouri would touch.

Shannon, Illinois’ leading scorer, took charge by drawing two free throws and then another chance at the charity stripe off an and-one.

Mizzou’s primary scorer, East, countered with a step-back 3 to temporarily bring the Tigers within four points just under five minutes into the game — MU’s only made 3-pointer of the first half. Illinois’ Coleman Hawkins answered East’s flash with a made 3 of his own and a steal from East.

Guerrier bagged a 3 to create a 20-9 advantage at the 12:12 mark of the first half, putting Mizzou’s chances of coming back for a victory in almost immediate jeopardy. An alley-oop to forward Aidan Shaw looked like a momentary spark, but the Illini worked themselves right back to the rim and a double-digit advantage.

Down by more than a dozen, Mizzou turned to a 3-point try from Carter, who missed his fifth shot of the first 10 minutes. Clink. Then came a midrange pull-up from point guard Nick Honor, who was two-for-four on that shot entering the game, per Synergy. Clank. And a catch-and-shoot 3 attempt from center Jordan Butler, a two-for-nine shooter — clunk.

After that stretch, which was punctuated only briefly by a layup from Carter, Illinois had doubled up Missouri 30-15. Ten Illini and five Tiger points later, Illinois had twice as many points again as Carter’s vertical layup contest that tried to avoid a foul wasn’t enough.

Fouling Guerrier as he made a 3 brought the deficit to two dozen with three minutes and change to go in the first half, though Illinois surpassed that tally to lead by 25 when Honor lost the ball while trying to pass out of a layup attempt on the final possession of the first half.

Down 27 in the opening minutes of the second half, forward Trent Pierce scored twice at the rim — once while drawing a foul after grabbing his own rebound. East scored MU’s next three buckets: a 3, the team’s second of the game, a floater and a physical hook shot. His run, though, didn’t align with any stoppage on the other end of the floor, making it only enough to close the lead to 22.

Both squads traded buckets before freshman point guard Anthony Robinson II riled up Mizzou fans by taking a hard foul on a transition layup attempt. He only made one of the ensuing free throws but secured a steal on the Illinois end of the court for a wide-open dunk.

That momentum swing — plus the onset of MU’s full-court pressure — led to a 3 from forward Jesus Martin Carralero that brought the Tigers within 20 points for the first time in the second half.

Two fouls gave Illinois enough free throw attempts to restore a 20-point margin.

Shaw fouled out with just over nine minutes left in the game while attempting to contest a Shannon layup created by a gap in the Tigers’ pressure. He managed to score just once from the field on a dunk while coming off the bench.

The dagger sequence came moments later. Honor poked free the ball on the perimeter, scampering down the floor with only the rim in front of him. Shannon caught up to whack the ball away from the MU point guard, tightroping the baseline to keep possession. His outlet pass came right back into his hands for a dunk that, compounded by a jumper shortly thereafter, forced Gates to use his second-to-last timeout with 7:51 left in the game.

That did little to slow down the cruising Illini, who extended their lead into the 30s to send fans to the exits with four minutes on the clock.

Missouri, now 7-5 on the season, will close out nonconference play at home against Central Arkansas on Dec. 30.