Missouri men’s basketball led by just three points at the half to the Northern Illinois Huskies, but ended up pulling away in the second half to win 54-37.

Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin chose to start sophomore forward Jordan Wilmore after bringing him off the bench in Monday night’s loss against Kansas City. Wilmore immediately made an impact as he scored the game’s first points on a two-handed dunk. 

“I have to keep working and keep pushing,” Wilmore said “during the offseason I focused on losing weight so I have to keep working on that and keep focusing on my game”

The Tigers got off to a sluggish start in which they only scored two field goals in the first eight minutes, but stuck in the game as their half-court press defense gave the Huskies problems.

Down 21-16 with 3:19 to go in the first half, Missouri found its groove as junior forward Kobe Brown scored a layup out of a Martin timeout to spark a 8-0 run, which ended the half with a 24-21 lead.

Both teams started the second half sloppy. Missouri’s offense broke the stalemate and picked up some steam out of the under-12 timeout with an 8-1 run that forced Northern Illinois head coach Rashon Burno to call a timeout.

Brown led the way for the Tigers with his physicality and aggression, doing a little bit of everything. Brown finished the game with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

“Kobe played a great floor game, distributing, attacking, making plays and a tremendous defensive job,” Martin said.

The story for Missouri was their defense. The Tigers recorded nine blocks, including three from WIlmore and four from Brown.

“Coach Martin said, ‘Defense is all pride. You have to have a heart at the end of the day, guard the man in front of you,’ and we did it tonight,” redshirt junior guard Jarron Coleman said.

Sophomore forward Ronnie DeGray III also played a big role as he earned trips to the free throw line and shot 100% on six attempts from the charity stripe and grabbed seven rebounds. 

Junior guard DaJuan Gordon couldn’t seem to find the net after knocking down a 3-pointer in the first half, but Gordon impacted the team in other ways, finishing with eight rebounds and three steals.

Near the end of the game, Missouri took control. A putback tip from Brown with less than two minutes to go sealed the game and extended Missouri’s lead to double digits, ending with a 54-37 victory.

Missouri looks to build off its momentum as they travel to Jacksonville, Florida, to take on Southern Methodist University on Sunday at 7 p.m.

Edited by Mason Arneson, marneson@themaneater.com