By BLAKE TOPPMEYER
Herald-Whig Sports Writer

The Illinois girls were out of options at point guard.

So they turned to 6-foot-1 center Tori Kuhn to spearhead their attack. She didn't disappoint.

Kuhn led Illinois on a 20-7 run in the final 4 minutes, 51 seconds as the Land of Lincoln all-stars rallied for a 69-60 win over Missouri in the 30th annual McDonald's/Herald-Whig Classic at Quincy University's Pepsi Arena.

"She was playing point-center for a while," Illinois coach Brad Begeman said.

Kuhn had to.

Lauren Gronewold, one of Illinois' point guard options, went down with a game-ending left ankle injury with 15:22 remaining in the second half. Then with 4:51 to play, Shannon Foley -- Illinois' starting point guard and the team's only other true ball handler other than Gronewold -- fouled out.

In their absence, Kuhn helped Illinois break Missouri's press. She finished with 18 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and six blocked shots and earned Most

Valuable Player honors for Illinois.

Illinois trailed 53-49 after Randi Lee Plunkett hit a pair of free throws following Foley's final foul, and Illinois' deficit moved to five points after Rachelle Sharpe made a free throw with 4:19 remaining.

Kuhn responded by getting to the free-throw line on back-to-back possessions and making all four attempts to cut Missouri's lead to 54-53. On Illinois' ensuing possession, Kuhn dished to Jacey Hartweg, who converted a layup to give Illinois a 55-54 lead -- its first lead since it led 23-21 late in the first half.

"(Kuhn) is tall and she's strong, but the thing that got me was when we threw on the press, Tori Kuhn was breaking our press. How does that happen?" said Plunkett, who earned MVP honors for Missouri after finishing with 15 points and eight rebounds.

"She can dribble the ball, and nobody wanted to get in front of her obviously because if you get hit by that, ouch. I got hit a couple times. You don't bounce off of that."

Kuhn had a couple capable sidekicks down the stretch.

Marlee Bradshaw scored nine of her 13 points after Foley fouled out. Bradshaw had no points at halftime after playing just four minutes in the first half, but she saw her playing time increase after halftime and answered the challenge.

"Honestly, I thought I was going to be the bench warmer, and I didn't care really because we had a good team, but it was an awesome experience," Bradshaw said.

Hartweg was also key. She drained a 3-pointer with 1:25 to play to put Illinois ahead 64-55. That essentially put the game away. Hartweg, who finished with 15 points, started off 1 of 5 from 3-point range but made her final two attempts from distance.

"I noticed in the beginning that maybe she wasn't knocking down some of her shots, but the good thing is, she didn't stop shooting," Kuhn said. "And she hit that key three (with 1:25 remaining) when we needed it, and that just gave us a lot of momentum. I think that's when we really started believing we (were going to win)."

Illinois came out in a full-court press that flustered Missouri, allowing Illinois to take a 13-3 lead. However, Missouri closed the first half on a 9-0 run to take a 28-23 halftime lead.

"They wore themselves down with that press, and we had to weather the storm through that," Plunkett said. "And if we got through that, I knew we could slow the ball down and then pick up the offense and get the ball inside and outside and get good shots."

Megan Brennan and Jessica Redd joined Plunkett in double figures for Missouri, scoring 11 and 10 points, respectively. Katie Serbin added eight points and 12 rebounds.

Yet it was Plunkett who led the Show-Me State's charge. She played 39 minutes, and her two free throws with 8:55 remaining put Missouri ahead 47-35. That matched Missouri's biggest lead, but Illinois responded with a 7-0 run, capped by Hartweg's second three.

"I think when we got down all those points, it was just a gut-check for all of us," Kuhn said.

Once Illinois got rolling down the stretch, it didn't let up -- certainly not Kuhn.

"Tori was pretty dominant," Missouri coach Mike Johnson said. "She was too much for us to handle."

-- btoppmeyer@whig.com/221-3367