COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Northern Illinois University men's basketball team was held to 24.1 percent shooting from the field Thursday night in a 54-37 loss to the Missouri Tigers at Mizzou Arena  in the opening round of The Jacksonville Classic by Fabletics. 

 
NIU (1-2) bounced back from an early 7-2 deficit to tie the game at 10 at the 10:39 mark on a Trendon Hankerson (Novi, Mich./Novi) layup. The Huskies took their first lead of the game when Keshawn Williams (Chicago Heights, Ill./Tulsa) beat the shot clock with a three to put NIU on top 15-14 with 5:32 to go in the half. That triple came in the middle of a 10-2 Huskies run which Adong Makuoi (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada/Daytona State College) capped with a baseline jumper to give NIU a 21-16 lead with 3:18 left in the first. The Tigers closed the half on an 8-0 run, with layups from Kobe Brown and Javon Pickett giving Missouri a 24-21 lead at the break. 
 
The Huskies scored the first four points of the second half, taking a 25-24 lead on a Chinedu Kingsley Okanu (Lynwood, Ill./Vincennes University) basket in the paint. Missouri answered with layups from Ronnie DeGray III and Kobe Brown to put the Tigers ahead 28-25 with 13:33 to play in the game. Zool Kueth (Gallatin, Tenn./Pratt CC) put NIU back in front with back-to-back threes to make the score 31-28 at the 11:46 mark. Sparked by a Jordan Wilmore dunk, Missouri went on a 10-0 run over 4:12 to take a 42-32 lead with under six minutes to go. The Huskies made just two more field goals the rest of the way as Missouri ran away with the 54-37 win. 

"We've yet to find our rhythm offensively," said head coach Rashon Burno following Thursday night's game. "We've got to do some things differently. It's putting so much pressure on our defense, which we did a good job of without fouling in the first half. This is a work in progress, but our guys showed some heart and we were in it until late in the game." 

Hankerson led the Huskies with eight points as Williams added seven. Darweshi Hunter (Cincinnati, Ohio/Weber State) led NIU with seven rebounds. Missouri (2-1) got 13 points and 13 rebounds from Brown with Wilmore adding 11. 

The Huskies now head down to Jacksonville, Fla. for the "Jax Bracket" of the Jacksonville Classic. NIU will take on Boston University on Sunday, Nov. 21 at 11 a.m. CT.  

--NIU--