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Kasparas Jakucionis leads Illinois to Braggin’ Rights win over Mizzou

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Kasparas Jakucionis has quickly become one of the hottest freshmen in the entire country this college basketball season. On Sunday, he was lights out again, battling it out for Illinois in the Braggin’ Rights matchup vs. Mizzou.

This one came down to the wire and was locked at 77-all inside a minute to play in the game. But Jakucionis took over time and time again, and he provided what would be the game-winner for the Illini.

He worked his way into a mismatch on a pick-and-roll situation before backing down near the paint and hitting a turnaround fadeaway for the lead. Illinois would tack on a free throw before the final buzzer to hold on for the 80-77 win to retain the Braggin’ Rights trophy.

Jakucionis was the star for Illinois once again, leading all scorers with 21 points while adding 4 assists and shooting 3-for-7 from 3-point range. The Lithuanian freshman now has 20+ points in 6 straight games and is averaging 16.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists for the Illini.

Mizzou was led by Mark Mitchell and Tony Perkins with both players chipping in 18 points apiece. Unfortunately, the Tigers were just 3-for-13 (23.1%) from deep and were out-rebounded 42-to-30.

Illinois gets back into the win column after narrowly missing an upset of No. 1 Tennessee in the most recent game. Brad Underwood’s group is now 2-2 against the SEC which is no easy accomplishment this season.

As for the Tigers, they see a 10-game winning streak fall by the wayside. It’s a tough pill to swallow being a rivalry game, but it’s hard to diminish their effort so far this season.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.