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Bruce Weber needed this one.
Barely into his first season at Illinois, Weber was growing weary of comparisons to Bill Self, who left the Illini for Kansas after last season. Tuesday's 71-70 win over No. 11 Missouri in the annual neutral-site ``Braggin' Rights'' game will help quiet the critics.
Asked if his players wanted to win the border-state grudge match for him, Weber said he had another priority,
``Shoot, I want them to win it for themselves,'' he explained. ``They battled their butts off.''
But guard Dee Brown, who led Illinois with 18 points and six assists, said criticism of Weber was motivation.
``I don't think
people understand how much heat he's catching,'' Brown said. ``But he's strong,
and he just wants us to play hard no matter what. I think he's got all of our
attention and we believe in him now.''
It was one that almost got away for No. 21 Illinois (7-2), which held a 21-point
lead late in the first half only to have Missouri (4-2) tie it with 1:30 to
play on a 3-pointer by Travon Bryant.
Sophomore forward James Augustine scored on a layup with 58.5 seconds to play to put Illinois back on top for good. Augustine had 14 points and 10 rebounds.
``I was thinking about it as Coach Weber's game and we can't let him down,'' Augustine said.
Bryant had a career-high 19 points, as did Rickey Paulding, for Missouri, which lost for the second time in three games. Bryant also matched a career-high with 12 rebounds and blocked two shots.
Illinois hadn't played for 10 days, but if there was any rust, it didn't show. The Illini dominated the early going, outrunning and outhustling Missouri.
``We knew one of their weaknesses was not getting back,'' Brown said.
Illinois took to a 9-2 lead and added runs of 16-2 and 13-2 later in the first half.
AP - Dec 23, 11:47 pm EST
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``I think we were a little shell-shocked at the beginning of the game,'' Missouri
coach Quin Snyder said. ``I thought we attacked well but we didn't shoot very
well.''
Missouri missed 13 of its first 16 shots.
Despite a size advantage for the Tigers, Illinois worked the ball inside for layups, hooks and short jumpers and built a 40-19 with 4:20 to go in the first half. Missouri committed 11 of its 18 turnovers in the opening half.
But Missouri went on a 15-2 run of its own to cut the margin to eight with 17:33 to go, then chipped away, eventually tying the game at 67-67 on Bryant's 3-pointer.
After Augustine's basket, Missouri's Arthur Johnson had a chance to tie the game again, but missed a short jumper with 23 seconds left. After Brown made two free throws with 19.7 seconds left, Missouri's Jimmy McKinney hit a 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left. After a timeout, the Illini iced the game by simply inbounding the ball.
Illinois has won the last four ``Braggin' Rights'' games and 15 of the series' 23.
``When you come to Missouri, you know this is one of the games that is played every year, and it's very tough to swallow that I've never been on the winning team,'' Bryant said.
The sellout crowd at the Savvis Center was about a 60-40 split of fans, with the mostly yellow clad Missouri fans slightly outnumbering the mostly orange Illini faithful. But the folks in orange had the most to cheer about. Among those in attendance were U.S. Sens. Kit Bond and Jim Talent of Missouri, and Attorney General John Ashcroft, a former Missouri governor.
Paulding, a preseason All-American who was shooting 33 percent from the field entering the game, was 6 for 10.