Mizzou takes No. 11 Xavier to overtime before falling 83-82

Missouri sophomore point guard Terrence Phillips was fantastic, but the final 5 seconds Thursday in an overtime loss against Xavier during the opening round of the Tire Pros Invitational will linger.

Phillips had a long three-pointer blocked on the Tigers’ final possession with a chance to win the game.

Musketeers junior J.P. Macura smartly called a timeout with 1.7 seconds remaining when Xavier sophomore Edmond Sumner secured the loose ball.

After another timeout, Macura made a touch pass from the backcourt to Sumner, who was positioned for an off-balance fade-away three-pointer from the right wing to win the game.

It would have been a difficult shot. The free throws Sumner received after Phillips made an aggressive move to intercept the pass and committed a non-shooting foul with 0.3 seconds remaining proved somewhat easier.

Sumner clanked the first free throw, but rattled in the second as No. 11 Xavier escaped with an 83-82 victory.

“You always teach your kids to be aggressive,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said. “I think he (Phillips) was just being aggressive. I’m sure he’d love to take it back, but you know what? He made a lot of great plays to get us to where we were. If it wasn’t for that, it wouldn’t have come down to that play. You know how that goes.”

Phillips, who fouled out on the play, finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and his brilliance is a big reason the Tigers nearly pulled the upset.

“We didn’t pin the loss on Terrence at all,” freshman guard Frankie Hughes said. “There were 80 or 90 possessions before that, so the loss definitely is not pinned on Terrence. We had the whole game, and that’s a great team.”

Missouri, 1-1, led or was tied throughout much of the game, but needed two clutch free throws from sophomore forward Kevin Puryear with 12.4 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

Xavier, 3-0, took control early during the extra five minutes, but Phillips willed Mizzou back.

It started with a deep three that sliced into a 78-73 lead midway through overtime.

Phillips then rebounded a long-range miss by Macura and drove the length of the floor, drawing a foul and tying the game with two free throws.

After a turnover by Sumner, Hughes — who scored a game- and career-high 24 and became the first freshman in program history to start his career with consecutive 20-point games — put the Tigers up with a layup in transition before the Musketeers tied it again on a putback by junior center Sean O’Mara.

Mizzou retook the lead when Phillips split a pair of defenders off a screen by Puryear, hit the “O” button and spun off another defender into the paint for a circus layup.

With 17.8 seconds left, Macura knotted the game for the 15th and final time with two free throws, setting up the heart-wrenching final sequence for the Tigers.

“Overall, you can’t be happy with a loss, but we competed at a high level and left it all out there on the court,” Hughes said.

Mizzou plays Davidson at 10:30 a.m. on Friday in the tourney’s consolation semifinals. The tournament is being played in HP Field House in Kissimmee, Fla., just outside of Orlando.

“The biggest challenge now is to come back in less than 24 hours and play another game,” Anderson said. “I’d rather have that than be a football coach and have a week to talk about it. It’ll be over in a few hours, because we’ll be talking about Davidson. Hopefully, that will help us get going again.”

Mizzou spotted Xavier an early 9-3 lead before embarking on a 24-8 run.

Puryear, a Blue Springs South graduate who finished with 22 points and a game-high 10 rebounds along with three assists, powered the outburst with nine points, while Hughes and senior forward Russell Woods combined for another nine points.

Mizzou has lost 28 straight games away from Mizzou Arena and 31 in a row on the road against Division I opponents, but this one felt different.

The Tigers are 0-11 against ranked opponents under Anderson, but the previous 10 losses were by an average of 22.5 points and none were closer than nine points.

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Mizzou takes No. 11 Xavier to overtime before falling 83-82."