Men’s Basketball: No. 18 Vanderbilt defeats Ole Miss 71-68, extends win streak to three – The Vanderbilt Hustler

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Men’s Basketball: Vanderbilt dominates Kentucky, wins 80-55 in Memorial Gymnasium
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No. 18 Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball took on the Ole Miss Rebels in Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday, Jan. 31, looking to extend its win streak to three after taking down Mississippi State and Kentucky in the last seven days. The game was originally scheduled to be played in Oxford, but due to weather, it was moved to a home game for the Commodores. Vanderbilt survived a late-game surge but inevitably took down the Rebels, 71-68, to improve to 19-3 on the season. 
Vanderbilt raced out to an early lead but faltered late in the second half. A stellar defensive performance in the first half, in which the Commodores forced nine turnovers, was enough to mount a 31-23 lead through 20 minutes. The second half was much more tightly contested, as Ole Miss missed a last-second 3-point attempt to tie it.  
With Duke Miles’ recent surgery, head coach Mark Byington elected to go with the same lineup as he did against Kentucky. Tyler Tanner, Tyler Nickel, AK Okereke, Devin McGlockton and Jalen Washington all made the start against the Rebels, a relatively large lineup. 
“I said [pregame], whatever it takes to be 1-0 today,” Byington said postgame. “I knew we weren’t coming in this game at our best [with] injuries, illnesses, fatigue, just a lot of things going on. Ole Miss fought really hard, and we knew they want to play that way. We [had] to figure out somehow, some way to be able to win [this] game. So, we weren’t our best and and still figured out a way. The team’s got to do that.”
First half 
Tanner got things started in terms of scoring in this game, forcing a turnover and slamming down an emphatic dunk to take a 2-0 lead. Despite this exciting initial play, things remained relatively knotted up in the opening minutes, with neither team able to mount a big lead. Nickel hit a big triple just before the first media timeout at 15:37 for the Commodores to earn a 7-2 advantage.  
Ole Miss’s Corey Chest hit a big alley-oop out of the break, before Harris took one to the hoop on the other end. The first eight minutes of the game were largely dictated by the Rebels’ turnovers, though, as they’d racked up six by the 12:19 mark, giving Vanderbilt a 12-5 lead at that point. Guards Eduardo Klafke and AJ Storr had given up the ball four times as the second media timeout of the half hit with Vanderbilt in front, 18-10, and 10:54 to go. 
Mike James hit his second 3-pointer of the game out of the timeout, extending Vanderbilt’s lead to 11. Several offensive rebounds for the Commodores gave way to extra opportunities, as Okereke hit on a second-chance layup, too. The Rebels had not scored in over three minutes as the eight minute mark hit, before Kezza Giffa nailed a bucket on the interior to break the scoring drought. The third media timeout of the half hit at 6:11 with Vanderbilt in front, 23-12. 
Tyler Harris then delivered the dunk of the game, slamming one down on the fast break opportunity. Ole Miss’s Patton Pinkins hit a layup on the other side, though, before the final media timeout arrived at 3:53. Vanderbilt had a firm 25-16 lead, as the Rebels struggled to find any semblance of offensive rhythm. Rebels forward and former Commodore Malik Dia hit several free throws near the end of the half, shrinking Vanderbilt’s lead to six at 27-21. Still, a huge dunk by Nickel, which made the Vanderbilt Faithful erupt, practically sealed the half as a win for the Commodores, who took a 31-23 lead through 20 minutes.  
It was a relatively low-scoring affair in the first half, as Vanderbilt shot 41% from the field but only 25% from deep. The Rebels didn’t do any better, though, shooting 38% from the field and a shockingly low 14% from beyond the arc.  
Second half 
Ole Miss’s Travis Perry hit a triple out of the break, just the team’s second of the day, to kick off the scoring in the second period. Okereke responded with a big dunk on offense, though, silencing the Ole Miss fans who made the trek to Memorial Gymnasium.  
Malik Dia hit a big and-one layup to shrink Vanderbilt’s lead to three at the 16:14 mark, but Tanner responded with the same exact play — a layup with a foul — to give Vanderbilt the 40-32 lead at 15:27.  
The Commodores had made five of their last seven field goals at this point, capped off by a Tanner triple which sent the crowd into a frenzy. Dia then went on a run, dropping five points in the span of a minute. Vanderbilt’s Chandler Bing stopped the bleeding on the other end, hitting a much-needed triple to cruise into the media timeout at 11:58 with his team in front, 49-40.  
Each team then began trading successful possessions, with Storr and Pinkins hitting back-to-back jumpers, before Tanner made an extremely contested layup to keep the lead to 11. 
A media timeout then arrived at 7:47 with the Commodores in front, 57-50, with Washington going to the line for a one-and-one opportunity. He missed out of the break, but Tanner picked up another two points off a contested layup. The Rebels then began to mount a comeback, shrinking Vanderbilt’s lead to 61-57 after Storr and Ilias Kamardine combined for several buckets around the rim.  
Vanderbilt led 65-59 as the final media timeout hit at 3:33, with Kamardine heading to the line for two shots. He sunk both, as crunch time had arrived in Memorial Gymnasium. Storr then hit two free throws, shrinking Vanderbilt’s lead to just two points as fans held their breath. The Commodores had not sunk a field goal in over four minutes as the 2:45 mark hit.  
James then hit arguably the biggest shot of the game, sinking a deep 3-pointer to take a seven point lead at 70-63. Storr then responded with a triple of his own to bring Vanderbilt’s lead back to two. 
A last-minute buzzer-beater attempt by Ole Miss fell short, and the Commodores took the win, 71-68, in one of the closest games in Memorial Gymnasium this season. 
Despite the somewhat messy ending, Vanderbilt earned win No. 19 on the season, squeezing past a pesky Ole Miss squad. The Commodores will now get a much-needed midweek game off, before taking on Oklahoma on Saturday, Feb. 7, in Memorial Gymnasium.  
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