By Nick Gray | Basketball beat writer

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With the opponent difficulty and the crowd noise notched up an extra few ticks, UK again faced a dogfight on the road late in the second half.

The Cats broke through the wall of noise for the first time on Saturday.

UK’s backcourt shouldered the offensive load en route to the Cats’ second road win of the year, a 84-79 victory over the University of Missouri, a team who had lost twice in two seasons at home in Mizzou Arena.

A trio of freshman guards – James Young, Aaron Harrison and Andrew Harrison – tempered Missouri’s attempt at a large comeback.

The Tigers were down by 16 at one point, and cut the lead to three points on two occasions due to the play of Tigers junior guards Jabari Brown and Jordan Clarkson.

With 51 seconds left, UK controlled possession with the one-possession lead, running the clock down. Aaron Harrison swung to the left, drove under the basket and finished the ball and the hopes of the Tigers. Aaron Harrison finished with a  team-high 21 points, including his vital driving layup.

Along with Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison (14 points) and James Young (20 points) controlled the tempo and ball on the offensive end in ways that did not happen Tuesday night in Baton Rouge. The three players turned the ball over twice, which is the lowest number all season.

“Andrew did a great job of running the team. Had a feel for where to go with the ball, what to do,” Calipari said.

The win came three days after the team gathered for a players-only meeting called by sophomore forward Alex Poythress before a flight out of Baton Rouge. Freshman forward Julius Randle thought no one else knew about the meeting, and disregarded the thought that the meeting was called to cater to their head coach.

“It was just something that we needed to do. It wasn’t to impress anybody,” Randle said.

Missouri head coach Frank Haith had his jacket off from the get-go on Saturday and berated game officials throughout the first minutes of the game. He picked up a technical foul – his first in 85 games at the school – after a foul on Tigers guard Earnest Ross that ended over three minutes of yelling towards any official that came near the Missouri bench.

Haith’s technical initially paid off for the Tigers as UK picked up three fouls in the next 48 seconds, including Cauley-Stein’s third foul with 11:46 left in the half. UK managed through the rest of the half without freshman center Dakari Johnson – who started but picked up two fouls before the game’s first timeout – or Cauley-Stein.

In their place, freshman forward Marcus Lee provided nine minutes, during which the Cats powered to a double-digit lead through their guards.

“UK fought as hard as I’ve seen them fight all year. They were very, very aggressive,” Haith said.

A trend reared its head in the second half when Missouri had the ball. Clarkson and Brown began to drive to the right side of the basket, and it worked even with the Tigers struggling to defend on the other end.

“We weren’t going to let them just blow us out,” Clarkson said.

Once it worked once, the pair continued on attacking the right side of the basket with the Cats big men in foul trouble.

“(The UK coaches) kept saying don’t let them drive right,” Calipari said. “And they kept driving right, driving right and driving right. So I imagine the next team we play will drive right.”

The Tigers’ drive-right-or-shoot-a-three offense pushed them to the brink of completing their 16-point comeback, down a possession with under a minute left and needing a stop that never came.

Brown and Clarkson finished with a combined 61 points on 21-of-34 shooting, including 26 of the Tigers’ final 29 points. UK’s players were asked after the game whether or not the Tigers’ duo could win in a “shootout” later on in the season.

“I think we just had one like that,” Aaron Harrison said.  “And we won.”