Vanderbilt basketball is struggling at the wrong time.
The No. 21 Commodores lost to Kentucky 91-77 on Feb. 28 in Lexington, Kentucky, preventing them from sweeping the Wildcats for the first time since the 2005-06 season (Vanderbilt won Jan. 27 at home 80-55).
It was Vanderbilt’s third loss in four games, and it faces Ole Miss and Tennessee before the March 11-15 SEC men’s basketball tournament in Nashville.
Kentucky (19-10, 10-6 SEC) has won back-to-back games after having lost three straight.
Here are three takeaways from the SEC loss.
Collin Chandler who tied for Kentucky’s lead in scoring with 23 points, shot 7-for-10 overall, including six of the team’s 11 3-pointers.
“We let Chandler get loose,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said during the postgame radio interview. “He actually was a big priority in our scouting report. It just didn’t come through. We knew he has been playing well.”
Vanderbilt was woeful from the 3-point line, hitting just 7 of 28 attempts. Tyler Nickel hit a couple of 3’s late, and shot 5-for-15 overall to finish with 13 points.
Vanderbilt trailed 46-31 at halftime. Responding to that kind of a deficit at Rupp Arena is difficult, especially for the Commodores. Sophomore Tyler Tanner, who finished the game with a team-best 19 points, took just five shots and scored six points in the first half.
Duke Miles, who made his first start since returning from a knee injury, was 1-for-4 from the 3-point line, with eight points, before halftime. He managed just three more points the rest of the game.
The Wildcats, though, had already set the tone by the second half. Their aggressive defense had 11 points off turnovers in the first.
Two of Vanderbilt’s past three losses have come away from Nashville. And its next two games are on the road.
Its game at Ole Miss on March 3 was originally a home game, but it was flipped after an ice storm in Oxford, Mississippi, forced the league to make changes. The Commodores finish the regular season March 7 against Tennessee in Knoxville.
Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or [email protected].
