Updated at 10 p.m. CST Dec. 25

SHREVEPORT, La. — The numbers will forever signify what might have been for Iowa State football: Missouri 17, ISU 14.

Even now, a month after it happened and with the Cyclones getting ready for Tuesday’s game against Miami of Ohio in the Independence Bowl, the bitter taste from that overtime loss lingers.

Not only did it end what had been an uplifting regular season on a sour note, it kept the Cyclones from winning the Big 12 North championship outright and knocked them out of the conference championship game.

“A game like that is going to put a bad taste in your mouth and it’s still in my mouth,” center Luke Vander Sanden said. “And I don’t think it will completely ever be out because we had the opportunity of a lifetime if we could have taken care of business in that game.”

The Cyclones (6-5) had a chance to win that game twice at the end.

With 1:02 left in regulation and the score tied at 14, Bret Culbertson missed a 24-yard field goal attempt, a kick that was only 4 yards longer than the two extra points he had converted earlier.

Then, after Missouri had taken the lead in overtime, Iowa State had a first down at the Tigers’ 3. Two plays later, however, Missouri’s A.J. Kincade intercepted Bret Meyer’s pass in the end zone, ending the game and plunging Jack Trice Stadium into stunned silence.

“It would be a sick feeling … to finish my football career with a loss like that,” senior linebacker Erik Anderson said. “So it’s great to get another shot to go out and play, to go out and compete.”

Still, Anderson said it took a long time to get over the loss, which resulted in Colorado playing Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, where Iowa State had played Florida State in 2003.

“I tried not to watch that game, but found myself flipping through it a couple of times just to see what was going on,” Anderson said. “Just to think, we could have been on the field.

“We know what it’s like to play there. We’ve been in that locker room. It would have been fun to be back at Arrowhead, but it wasn’t in the cards for us.”

Of course, the Independence Bowl doesn’t conjure up the best of memories for Iowa State, either.

The Cyclones still rave about the hospitality they received Shreveport before playing in the 2001 game, but they lost to Alabama 14-13 when Tony Yelk’s 47-yard field goal attempt was ruled wide right with 38 seconds left.

Coach Dan McCarney insists to this day the kick was good. Anderson, a freshman then, thought the same thing. He was holding hands with defensive coordinator John Skladany and linebacker Justin Eilers as Yelk got ready to kick.

“We all thought it went in. We started celebrating,” Anderson said. “It was obviously a shocking feeling for everyone that night, the whole Cyclone nation. Hopefully, we can have a different outcome this year.”

Offensive tackle Cale Stubbe didn’t play that night because of an injury, but he was on the field and felt the tension.

“I had my hat on and kind of pulled it down when he kicked it because I didn’t want to watch,” Stubbe said. “Then I heard everyone just sigh and I was like, `No way!’

“Then we watched it over and over and it looked good. We just hope it doesn’t come down to that again.’

If it does, Culbertson — a freshman walk-on who didn’t join the team until after classes started — will get his chance at redemption.

“We have faith in Culbertson that he’ll get the job done,” Stubbe said. “He’s done a great job this year.”

The Cyclones arrived in Shreveport on Friday, but two players will not be going to the Independence Bowl game, team officials said.

Tight end James Wright will miss Tuesday’s game because of academic issues, McCarney said on Friday.

Wright, a 6-foot-3, 140-pound senior from Houston, caught 29 passes for 322 yards and made one touchdown this season.

Freshman tailback Tyease Thompson will also not make the trip due to a violation of team rules, which did not involve criminal wrongdoing, ISU spokesman Tom Kroeschell said Saturday.

Thompson, is a 5-foot-10, 180-pound freshman reserve running back from Lakeland, Fla. He carried 21 times for 77 yards, returned 14 kickoffs for an average of 23.8 yards this season.