Out with a bang: Shamburger leads Missouri past Auburn on senior night
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- On senior night at Mizzou Arena, senior Keith Shamburger made the difference.
Shamburger made a 10-foot jumper with 10 seconds left to lift Missouri to a 63-61 victory over Auburn. The win kept alive Missouri's slim hopes to avoid finishing at the bottom of the SEC. With one game left, Missouri (3-14) trails Auburn (4-13) by one game.
If Missouri wins at Mississippi State and Auburn loses at home to Georgia on Saturday, a rather complicated tiebreaker system would be needed to determine who is the bottom seed in next week's conference tournament.
Shamburger's winning basket was set up by freshman Montaque Gill-Caesar, who snuck up on Cinmeon Bowers under the Auburn basket and poked the ball away. Shamburger picked it up, dribbled into the paint and made the winner. He joked afterward that he was thinking of throwing an alley-oop to fellow senior Keanau Post.
"I'm glad he shot it," Missouri coach Kim Anderson said.
With KT Harrell, the SEC's leading scorer, taking over, Auburn took an eight-point lead with 4:06 left. But Missouri didn't fold. Three straight 3-pointers -- by Shamburger, Gill-Caesar and Johnathan Williams III -- turned the momentum and set the stage for Shamburger's heroics.
3-POINTERS
• Shamburger started strong, too. This is the only season Shamburger has played at Missouri, but he didn't let that stop him from enjoying senior night. The graduate transfer from Hawaii made his first four shots, including two 3-pointers, and along with a conventional three-point play, he had 11 points -- to 12 for Auburn -- by the second media timeout.
Though Shamburger then went quiet for the rest of the first half and part of the second, he sparked the host Tigers down the stretch and finished with 10 points after intermission. Not only that, he volunteered to take over the duties of defending Harrell, who scored a game-high 24 points, but none in the final 4:06.
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Harrell missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer, though Pearl claimed it was more than good defense by Shamburger.
"I thought KT got fouled twice on the last possession," Pearl said.
Was there contact, Shamburger was asked?
"I can't speak on that," he said, smiling.
• Classy gesture by Anderson. Anderson, in the home finale of his first season, took a microphone following the game and thanked the Tigers' fans who stuck around.
He told the crowd: "I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight and for coming out this year. I know it's not the year you wanted. It's not the year I wanted. It's not the year anybody wanted. I sincerely appreciate all of you. I know you stuck with us all the way."
In his postgame presser, Anderson explained why he wanted to speak.
"There's been a core group of people that have been really supportive and I just wanted to thank them," he said. "Some of them have written me letters. Most of them have been good. We have great fans. This is not what Missouri fans are used to and it's obviously not what I'm used to. It is what it is. It happened. I wanted to say thank you to all the people that supported us."
The Tigers finished their home season 8-8 after winning their final two home games.
• Auburn at less than full strength. Auburn was without its second-leading scorer, senior transfer Antoine Mason, for the second straight game. Mason has been away from the team since the death Saturday of his father, former NBA player Anthony Mason. A moment of silence was held before the game in Mason's honor.
Thanks to freshman guard TJ Lang, however, Mason's production really wasn't missed. Lang finished with 13 points on five-of-six shooting and was the only Auburn player besides Harrell in double figures. For Missouri, Gill-Caesar and Namon Wright, who each scored 10 points, were the only players in double figures besides Shamburger, the senior star of the night.
You can follow Stan McNeal on Twitter at @StanMcNeal or email him at stanmcneal@gmail.com.
