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[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/818851106923171840

Tigers take on Missouri after three consecutive losses to start conference play. Yet despite letting two leads slip away (one against Georgia, another against Ole Miss) and suffering a tough defeat at Vanderbilt, coach Bruce Pearl isn’t panicking.

“We’re good enough to beat anybody at home that is on our schedule, and we’re good enough to beat anybody on the road,” Pearl said. “We have to play well.

“We had a couple of wins against Upstate and Mercer. If those games don’t go our way, it’s sort of the same thing as them losing to Eastern Illinois and Lipscomb. But we hit a buzzer shot against Mercer, and we managed to beat Upstate,” Pearl said. “You look at the teams they’ve (Missouri) lost to. They’ve lost to really good teams. They played a very, very tough schedule. That’s the challenge. We have to play better than just good to go there and win. We have to play very well to beat them there.”

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Dave_Matter/status/819036387550887939

COLUMBIA, MO. • For nine seconds Missouri regained momentum, recaptured the attention of a sleepy crowd and instilled some faith that its losing streak was about to expire. Russell Woods’ free throw with 2:27 left knotted Mizzou and Auburn for the fifth time Tuesday, a glimmer of hope that MU could deliver its first conference win.

Mustapha Heron must have thought the same thing.

Nine seconds after Woods’ free throw dropped, Auburn’s freshman guard sank a 3-pointer from the wing to put his team back in front for good and extend Mizzou’s pain another night. The rest was just details as Auburn preserved a 77-72 victory at the free throw line. With one of the most winnable home games left on the schedule, Missouri stretched its losing streak to seven. In a game that saw 14 lead changes, Heron's quick 3 will go down as the deciding blow.

"It sucked for us," guard K.J. Walton said. "Kind of like the season has been going … it kind of deflated our team. We’ve got to keep moving on."

Anderson says Missouri won't practice tomorrow, needs time to "cleanse the soul"

Bruce Pearl jokes when walking in postgame interview room. "We don't have this many guys at five Auburn games."