Jayden Stone and Mark Mitchell combine for 42 to lift Mizzou past Auburn

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

In a showdown of Tigers, Mizzou men's basketball took home a win over Auburn 84-74 to improve to 3-1 in SEC play.

You can watch extended highlights of the victory in the video player below.

After suffering a loss against Ole Miss on the road on Saturday, MU returned to their home floor in the hunt for a bounce back win. Despite Auburn finding its rythym early, the Mizzou found a spark off the bench from Junior Trent Pierce. He scored 12 of the teams first 26 points including three from beyond the arc.

"I saw a program respond from what we knew was going to happen, a team fighting back late in the game and trying to find a way. That's SEC conference play, it's going to go possession-by-possession. We knew that we had a double-digit lead, but there's no doubt about it. [Auburn] put themselves in a great situation to get away with eight free throws and we were able to respond," head coach Dennis Gates said said. "That's the most important thing I will focus on. Our guys didn't do anything bad. I thought Auburn did everything right to kind of muck up the game, at that point. Once we started playing on our toes and not our heels, putting pressure on our basket, no matter how far we were, we were able to break the press and execute and obviously get to the line. Last game I thought being able to make free throws cost us because we were, obviously, missing them, but tonight we were able to close a game."

You can watch the full postgame press conference with Gates, as well as forward Trent Pierce and guard T.O. Barrett in the video player below.

Mark Mitchell followed suit opening the second half to reach his eighth game this season with 20 points or more. Mizzou lead by as much as 13 in the second frame, and even with the visitors mounting a late charge, head coach Dennis Gates' squad managed to fend it off the comeback.

Jayden Stone scored 16 to help keep MU in the drivers seat, and lead all scorers with 22 points. T.O. Barrett also had one of his most impressive outings of the year, adding 12 points of his own off of the bench.

Coach Gates and company also had an impressive performance from on the defensive end, keeping every Auburn player to 10 points or less. Despite the win, the team's struggles from the free throw line continued into Wednesday's contest, as the team went just 16-of-24 from the charity stripe.

Up Next - Mizzou will travel to take on another set of Tigers. The game against LSU is scheduled to tip off at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17.