Thursday night’s Men’s Basketball matchup between the Missouri Tigers and Northern Illinois Huskies was sloppy, to say the least. This was a defensive battle, with both teams shooting poorly from the field. Mizzou shot 40.8% while the Huskies shot an abysmal 24.1%. Coach Martin called it, “a gritty performance” to bounce back and get a win after a tough Monday night.

When asked about the difference between Monday’s game and Thursday night’s game Coach Martin stated, “You know it is the same thing that my mom used to tell me: don’t touch the hot stove. But I would still touch it. I tell those guys that if the shot isn’t falling you still need to defend hustle and play hard. They had to learn the hard way and it was a painful lesson, but hopefully, we learned from it.” 

The Tigers certainly did learn from it as they dominated defensively, forcing 11 turnovers, while adding nine blocks and six steals. They also out hustled the Huskies on the boards 40-32. Boogie Coleman said that coach Martin is “preaching” that kind of defensive hustle every day and that, “last game was a wake-up call for us and at the end of the day it is on us to do it. It’s on us as a team to focus on defense and try and play better together.”

Possibly the biggest difference in the game was Missouri’s command in the paint. They scored 34 points in the paint to Northern Illinois’ six. Ten of those points in the paint came from Jordan Wilmore, who had a career night.

The sophomore had 11 points on 5-7 shooting and added six rebounds. It seemed that whenever Mizzou was lacking energy, Wilmore had an energizing play. Two of his dunks came on back-to-back possessions and were in the midst of a 14-1 run, which would ultimately be the difference in the game. Whether it was his four electrifying dunks or an alley-oop tip-in, Wilmore was all over the place on Thursday.

Kobe Brown also had a great night for the Tigers as he had 13 points 13 rebounds and six assists. He led the team in all these categories. He had a flashy no-look pass to set up an easy layup and whether he was feeding his teammates, grabbing a board, or scoring himself, he impacted the game all night.

These two strong performances led Mizzou to a strong second-half performance which saw them go on a 24-5 in the final ten minutes of the game. 

Mizzou next plays Sunday at 7 p.m. in Jacksonville, Florida against SMU. This game and Thursday night’s game are a part of the Jacksonville Classic.