Dec. 21, 2000

Box Score

By R.B. FALLSTROM AP Sports Writer

ST. LOUIS - Frank Williams got the last basket in regulation and scored six of his 18 points in overtime as No. 5 Illinois beat Missouri 86-81 Thursday night.

Brian Cook added a career-high 25 points and had 11 rebounds for Illinois (9-2), which has won five in a row. Illinois ended Missouri's three-game winning streak in the annual neutral-site game, played before a sellout crowd of 22,089.

Williams scored on a 10-foot baseline jumper with 38 seconds left to force the extra period and opened the overtime by scoring from the key. He added a three-point play and a free throw and also blocked Clarence Gilbert's 3-point attempt with 44 seconds to go.

Illinois put it away on two free throws by Cory Bradford with 40.8 seconds to go that made it 86-78.

Clarence Gilbert had 23 points for Missouri (7-3), which finished a run of three ranked Big Ten schools in a five-day span. The Tigers also lost at Iowa in double-overtime on Saturday and won at Indiana on Monday.

Missouri's Kareem Rush scored a season-low 11 points, played only 21 minutes due to foul trouble and fouled out with 4:20 left and Illinois leading 65-64. Rush leads the Big 12 with a 22-point average.

Illinois led 43-37 at the half and was ahead twice by eight points before Missouri rallied. Wesley Stokes had a 3-pointer and three-point play in a 26-second span to knot it at 56 with 13:19 to go. Then T.J. Soyoye hit two free throws with 12:47 left put the Tigers in front for the first time since midway through the first half.

Neither team led by more than four points the rest of the way.

Cook dominated with an inside-outside game in the first half and scored 23 points. Cook was 9-for-10 overall and 2-for-3 from 3-point range, and had 10 points in a 17-2 run that turned a 27-21 deficit into a 38-29 lead with 3:44 left in the half.

Illinois went 10-for-11 from the free throw line, while Missouri shot 7-for-13.

Gilbert had 10 points in the half for Missouri, which led by nine points, 22-13, with 12:25 remaining but made only five of its last 17 shots in the half.