From: wlmg3055@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (William L. Myers)
Subject: Mizzou beats Illinois
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 03:28:49 GMT

In a game played at the St. Louis Arena Wednesday night, the Tigers
of Missouri defeated cross-border rival Illinois (66-65).  A sellout
crowd of 18,000+ cheered a see-saw contest, and a lot of ragged play.

Norm Stewart picked up his 597th victory, giving him and Lou 
Henson exactly the same #.  This was Stewart's 500th victory @
Missouri.  Norm definately liked this game and last years win better
than the previous 8 losses.  

But pregame Stewart went volcanic during Mizzou's warm ups.  
The Illini had left 12 warmup balls on the court.  Apparently 
6 were 'wide-seam', 6 'narrow-seam'.  But Norm, sensing a devious 
plot, decided that since only 'narrow-seam' balls would be used 
during the game his team needed an extra 5 minutes to warm up.  
Did they get it? I don't know, the game seemed to start more
or less on time.  But Norm had fun abusing the referees prior to play.
Stewart rallied his team in a pregame huddle at the free throw line 
to tell them about this awful skulldrudgery, and probably to point
out that 2 of 3 refs were B10 officials.  

Illinois responded well to Stewarts inspiration, taking an early 14-4
lead.  They controlled the boards, and Kaufman and Clemons drove past
their Tiger defenders.  Mizzou applied full court pressure, trying to 
knock loose some of this year's frequent Illini turnovers.  They 
didn't really succeed in that, only 5 just before half time.  But they
did disrupt the rhythm of Illinois' offense, and their half court
defensive help got much better.  

Kaufman and Clemons picked up early 1st half charging fouls and
were forced to sit.  Mizzou's defense adjusted but those two Illini 
didn't pull up for any jumpers, just tried to bull their way in.

Meanwhile, Charleston MO's Lamont Turner took TJ Wheeler into the
lane and shot over him for 8-10 footers.  M.L. Booker hit some 3's
and drives and before long the Tigers had the lead. Their inside
game started working too.  

At half-time it was tied 32-32. Kaufman and Thomas had most of Illinois
points, while Mizzou scoring was spread out.  Mizzou played excellent
D in the second half, and ran their half-court offense just the way
they wanted to.  They went on a run and opened up a 10 pt. lead, which
they carried for most of the half.  Illinoi's offense disappeared and
they were stuck around 36 to 38 for a long time. 

Mizzou capitalized on quickly shot misses by Illinois to run their fast
break for easy points.  Henson eventually took out Kaufman and Clemons
for a long stretch when he found that Taylor and Keene gave him the
play he wanted (mostly defense).  Keene hit several 3's to close the
gap, but Mizzou countered and hit their f.t.s when needed.

By this time Kaufman had reentered the game, but seemed out of synch.
Keene hit the last Illini points to reach 65, but with 5 seconds left
Mizzou did an excellent job of playing keep away and Illinois couldn't
give a foul.  

A nice win for Mizzou.  Both teams are picked somewhere near the middle 
of their respective leagues, (or lower).  

Illinois will have to execute offensively better than that if they hope to
reach the tournament.  No points to speak of from Wheeler or Harris.  They
got man-handled on both ends by more athletic Tiger guards.  Michael came
in for Bennet and couldn't get open, and shows indications of not being
able to handle anyone he 'guards' this year.  Mizzou shot about 47%, IL
around 33%. 

Booker was top man for Mizzou with about 19 points, both Thomas and 
Kaufman had a similiar number for Illinois. 

Illinois flies to Texas Christmas Day to play the longhorns Dec. 26th.

Happy Holidays

posted for John Althauser

Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college