The Missouri Tigers took the lead early and held on to it throughout.

But Vanderbilt hung around and made Saturday’s game at Mizzou Arena a lot closer than it needed to be.

The Tigers scored the final seven points to beat the Commodores 75-66, claiming Missouri’s second consecutive SEC win after dropping 21 in a row.

“It was a run of two halves that they had,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “The end of the first didn’t go well for us, but we ended up closing it out … but again, this is the SEC. That’s a great basketball team.”

After the Tigers had led by as much as 17 late in the first half, the Commodores refused to let Missouri put them away.

Vanderbilt used a 9-0 run to cut a 12-point Missouri lead to three at 49-46 with 12:44 left to play, but the Tigers were able to extend back to a 55-48 advantage after a Trent Pierce layup.

The Commodores cut it back to three at 55-52, but once again the Tigers responded with a Tamar Bates step-back 3 from the right wing behind a Josh Gray screen and Caleb Grill’s second 3 of the game after starting 0-for-5 from deep.

“Grill doesn’t think he was 0-for-5, and he’s not going to ever catch the ball thinking that way,” Gates said. “Nor are his teammates. His teammates want him to shoot the ball and he was able to make some great 3-point shots for us tonight, make some great defensive plays, some rebounds. And having him back playing the majority of the minutes that he did after his injury is crucial, I thought he was able to make some unbelievable, timely execution.”

Once again, Vanderbilt fought to cut the lead, this time bringing it all the way to a single point at 61-60 after a Chris Manon 3 with 5:32 left.

But as they had throughout the game, the Tigers responded.

Grill stole a pass and tossed it ahead to Bates for a one-handed dunk in transition to break an 8-0 Vanderbilt run, then Grill stole another pass and tossed it ahead to Bates again, leading to a free throw to give the Tigers a four-point lead with 4:19 remaining.

“Any time, you know, when you’re going through a little lull like that, just to get a bucket, just see the ball go through the basket, I think, can be big,” Missouri forward Mark Mitchell said. “Just for team morale, just for our psyche”

Anthony Robinson added two free throws to extend the lead to six, but Vanderbilt was able to fight back to 68-66 after Missouri was called for its second foul on a 3-pointer, leading to Jason Edwards - who led the game with 20 points off the bench for Vanderbilt - hitting all three attempts with 2:11 left to play.

Those would be Vanderbilt’s final points, though, as the Tigers responded once more to create the final margin.

“We stopped the second-chance points, we kept them off the free-throw line,” Gates said. “I think their last couple points came off free throws and fouls and our lack of discipline in terms of giving the shooter space to land.”

The Tigers stormed out after winning the tipoff, as Bates hit a 3, then Robinson hit a step-back 3 and a layup, Pierce hit a 3 and Tony Perkins did as well to make the Tigers 5-for-5 from the field and 4-of-4 from 3 to start the game leading 14-2.

Then the Tiger offense slowed down as Mizzou shot just 6-of-20 from 3 and 19-of-44 from the field the rest of the game.

A Robinson free throw extended the Tiger lead to double-digits for the first time at 15-5, then a Mitchell layup gave the Tigers an 11-point lead at 25-14 with 10:55 left.

The Tigers extended to a 15-point lead after a Marques Warrick 3 put the Tigers on an 8-0 run with 9:45 left before halftime.

Vanderbilt cut the lead down to seven, but the Tigers went on a 10-0 run to follow with two Mitchell free throws, a Robinson step-back 3, two Robinson free throws and a Pierce 3 off a Robinson offensive rebound and assist. After Pierce’s 3, the Tiger lead was as big as it would be at 39-22 with 4:49 left before halftime.

But after a Warrick layup with 2:16 left, Vanderbilt ended the half on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to single digits at 41-32 to head into halftime.

The Tigers extended to a 13-point lead early in the second half before Vanderbilt began its first run to cut the lead to a single score.

Missouri shot 24-of-49 (49 percent) from the field, 10-of-24 (41.7 percent) from 3 and 17-of-25 (68 percent) from the free-throw line.

The Tigers won the rebounding battle 33-29, giving Missouri the advantage in rebounding in every SEC game so far.

Both teams committed 14 turnovers and scored 19 points off turnovers. Both teams had nine offensive rebounds and Missouri won the battle for second-chance points just 14-12. Vanderbilt’s bench outscored Missouri 36-18 as the Tigers’ relied heavily on the starters who produced 57 points, 12 assists, 15 rebounds and four steals.

Gray, coming off the bench once again, produced a game-high 11 rebounds in just 19 minutes played.

"Josh is a first-team all-conference defender,” Gates said. “... He was able to do a lot of things that does not show up in his stat sheet. So Josh Gray, in my eyes, you can look at everybody’s stats and say somebody else was the MVP, but I’ll take Josh Gray any day of the week as the most valuable player this game.”

Mitchell led the Tigers with 19 points to go with seven rebounds, while Robinson had 15 points and a career-high eight assists, while poking away three steals. Grill added 13 points and five rebounds.

Missouri (13-3, 2-1 SEC) will hit the road to face Florida at 8 p.m. (CT) Tuesday before returning to Columbia to host Arkansas at 5 p.m. next Saturday.

Stay up to date on all the Mizzou news with your premium subscription.

Talk about this story in the story thread and discuss so much more in The Tiger Walk.

Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines.