By IlliniGuys Staff

December 22, 2024

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Only one Illini player has ever experienced the Braggin' Rights game.

The entire team left the arena Sunday afternoon wearing bruises as a souvenir of its battle with rival Missouri.

Kasparas Jakucionis scored a team-high 21 points, including the game-winning jumper with 28 seconds left, as Illinois survived its annual brawl with the Tigers, 80-77.

The Illini were almost perfect at the free throw line, connecting on 22-of-23 attempts. Kylan Boswell had the only miss after hitting eleven in a row, missing his second free throw with eight seconds left as he was trying to ice the game for Illinois. But Jacob Crews' three-point attempt bounced off the far iron as time expired.

Boswell finished with 16 points, despite shooting just 2-0f-12 from the field. But he grabbed nine rebounds, dished out a team-high five assists and harassed Missouri guards defensively all afternoon.

It was the second game in a row where whistles were prevalent as 43 fouls were called between the two teams. Morez Johnson Jr. and Tre White both fouled out as Missouri shot 14 more free throws than Illinois but failed to take advantage, making only 28-of-37 attempts.

White ended up with 13 points while Tomislav Ivisic came out of a scoring slump with 11 points to go with 10 rebounds.  The lone Illini veteran of this game, sophomore guard Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn, scored seven points in 14 minutes off the bench.

Jakucionis extends his team freshman record with his sixth straight game with at least 20 points.

Illinois (8-3) goes 2-2 against SEC teams this season. They beat then-19th ranked Arkansas and lost to then#8 Alabama and top ranked Tennessee.

Mark Mitchell and former Iowa guard Tony Perkins scored 18 each for the Tigers.

The loss snaps a 10-game win streak for Missouri (10-2) and it's their second straight loss in the series.

Illinois returns to action next Sunday when they host Chicago State at State Farm Center (1pm, BTN).

Stay with IlliniGuys.com for complete postgame coverage.