AUBURN | It's a trap. At least it could be for the nation's top-ranked team.

No. 15 Alabama travelled to Mizzou Arena two and a half weeks ago and came away with its first conference loss, 92-86.

Auburn, which reached No. 1 in the AP Poll for the first time in school history this week, is hoping to avoid the same fate.

“Missouri plays really, really well at home. They score 73 points a game at home. That's not unusual. We do as well,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. “But my goodness gracious, they had Texas A&M beat. They led the entire game at home against Texas A&M about two weeks ago, and just in the last couple of minutes lost that lead.

“I will say this: Our focus has got to go out there and defend and rebound, because they're going to do that to us.”

Auburn enters the game on an absolute roll, winners of 15 consecutive games, 18-1 overall and a perfect 7-0 in the SEC. Missouri is 8-10 overall and 2-4 in the conference.

In Mizzou’s two SEC wins over Alabama and Ole Miss, Kobe Brown averaged 22.5 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. In its four losses, he averaged 6.3 points and 7.0 rebounds.

The 6-foot-6 freshman from Huntsville, Ala., will need to be a focal point for Auburn’s defense.

“Big, strong, physical team. They play really well at home,” said Pearl. “Kobe Brown is a terrific player. An Alabama kid that we recruited and got to know his family really well.’

Auburn has already passed road tests at USF, St. Louis, South Carolina, Alabama and Ole Miss, but coming off a big win over No. 12 Kentucky and a quick turnaround from Saturday to Tuesday are just some of the potential roadblocks that AU will have to overcome in Columbia.

Pearl is certainly expecting Missouri and its players to be highly motivated to go up against a top-ranked opponent at home.

“Seven out of their last nine opponents have been in the Top 25,” said Pearl. “They may not be there now, but they've played a really tough schedule. And so Auburn coming in, obviously they're not going to be intimated by us. They played us well there.”

Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.