Mizzou-Illinois Game Notes
12/24/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 24, 2003
+ The Tigers fall to 4-2 on the year
+ Mizzou has now dropped four straight contests to Illinois.
+ Senior Travon Bryant had a spectacular night scoring a career-high 19 points and pulling down a career-best 12 boards. He was 8-of-14 from the field including a career-best three three-point field goals (3-of-4 from beyond the arc). Bryant also had two assists, two blocks and three steals.
+ Fellow senior Rickey Paulding tied with Bryant for game-high honors with 19 points. Senior Arthur Johnson also reached double figures with his second double-double of the year (18 points, 10 rebounds). AJ went 5-of-12 from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line.
+ With his 19-point effort, Paulding moves into 20th on the all-time Mizzou scoring list with 1,307 points. He passes former Tiger great Kim Anderson (1974-77) and is just one point behind Nathan Buntin (1987-90) for the 19th spot. Johnson also moved up on the career scoring chart with his 18 point effort. He now is in the No. 15 spot with 1,361 points, just 26 points behind No. 14 on the list, Willie Smith (1975-76, 1,387 points).
+ Johnson remains in sixth place on the Tiger al-time rebounding charts with 909. He now needs just 144 boards to become Mizzou's all-time leading rebounder. If he continues his current pace of 8.3 board per contest, he will become the Tigers all-time leading board worker right around Feb. 21st at Baylor. He also became only the fourth Tiger in school history to score 1,300 points and pull down 900 career rebounds on Tuesday night.
+ The Tigers continue to dominate on the boards. They have out-rebounded all six of their opponents so far this season (41-35 against Illinois).
+ Mizzou continues to struggle in the turnover department. The Tigers issued 18 turnovers in the contest compared to Illinois' 11. The Illini turned those 18 Mizzou miscues into 21 points.
+ The Tigers had their best night at the free throw line since going 23-of-25 in their opener against Oakland. Mizzou went 22-of-29 from the free-throw line against the Illini (75.9 percent).
+ After falling behind by as many as 21 points in the first half (41-19 with 4:18 remaining) and allowing Illinois to shoot 47 percent in the opening 20 minutes, the Tigers clamped down on the Illini in the second stanza, holding them to 30.8 percent shooting while outscoring them 42-29 in the second half.
+ The Tigers will be busy over the Holidays as they travel to Memphis on Saturday, welcome Belmont to Hearnes on Dec. 30, and then face Iowa at home on Jan. 3.
