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Tyler Tanner: Home is where the heart is
March Madness is officially here, and for the second-straight year, Vanderbilt earned a bid to the Big Dance on Selection Sunday. The Commodores were selected as a 5 seed in the South Region, heading to Oklahoma City for its first two rounds. This matched the Commodores up with 12-seed McNeese in the Round of 64, setting up a crucial opportunity for Vanderbilt to win a game in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012.
Head coach Mark Byington didn’t let being the higher seed in the tournament get to his team’s head, as the Commodores successfully took down the Cowboys, 78-68. Vanderbilt was out of rhythm for the first 10 minutes of the game but eventually settled in near the end of the first period, earning a 38-35 halftime lead. McNeese’s hot shooting start eventually cooled off, allowing the Commodores’ stellar guard play and solid 3-point shooting to shine.
The second half was all Vanderbilt, as they consistently found open looks on the perimeter and crashed the glass for second-chance opportunities. They eventually cruised to a 10-point victory, advancing to the Round of 32 to face 4-seed Nebraska.
Tyler Tanner, Duke Miles, Tyler Nickel, AK Okereke and Devin McGlockton earned the start for Vanderbilt — Byington’s usual starting lineup — looking to avoid the upset.
First half
Vanderbilt secured the opening tip but came up empty on its first two possessions, before McNeese’s Tyshawn Archie hit an easy bucket on the inside to put points on the board. Tanner responded with an and-1 bucket to get the Commodores going, but the Cowboys were feeling it from deep to begin the game. Three consecutive made 3-pointers gave McNeese the early 12-5 lead at the first media timeout with 16:06 left in the half.
After several stoppages for timeouts, McNeese’s Javohn Garcia and Larry Johnson hit back-to-back tough buckets from the midrange to extend the Cowboys’ lead to 16-5. McNeese had made each of its last four field goal attempts before Tanner finally stopped the bleeding with a corner 3-pointer. The Cowboys just couldn’t seem to miss, though, knocking in two more field goals to earn a 21-12 advantage at the 12:00 mark.
Nickel finally hit his first 3-point attempt after three tries to shrink Vanderbilt’s deficit to 6 points, but the Cowboys continued to pour it in, knocking in yet another triple, this time courtesy of Jacolb Fredson-Cole. They had hit 4-of-7 deep attempts up to this point, a full 26 percentage points above their season average. McNeese’s consistent press and excellent guard play had the Commodores out of rhythm on the offensive end.
A tough bucket by Miles lessened McNeese’s lead to 26-20, before Okereke hit a big-time triple to get it to 26-23. The Commodores had seemingly found an offensive rhythm, as McGlockton cashed in a layup to get it to a 1-point game with 4:18 to go in the half. Nickel then hit his second 3-pointer of the night, giving Vanderbilt its first lead of the afternoon at 30-28.
The Commodores trailed just 33-30 at the under-four media timeout. Tanner made two free throws at the 1:45 mark to give Vanderbilt a 35-33 lead, as it seemed McNeese’s offense was cooling off. Okereke then hit a triple as the half came to a close, giving Vanderbilt a 38-35 advantage at halftime.
Vanderbilt’s offense seemed to find a rhythm in the final 10 minutes of the half, pushing its shooting percentage to over 50%. McGlockton led the way in terms of scoring for the ‘Dores, dropping 10 points through 20 minutes.
Second half
Vanderbilt came out of the gates hot, as Okereke hit a free throw before Miles and Nickel nailed back-to-back contested triples to give the Commodores a 45-35 lead at the 18:12 mark. McNeese head coach Bill Armstrong then called a timeout to reset as the contingent of Vanderbilt Faithful erupted.
McNeese’s Garwey Dual finally hit a 3-pointer to stop the bleeding, starting a 7-0 run for the Cowboys that was punctuated with a layup by Johnson. Vanderbilt’s lead had shrunk to 3 points at 45-42 as the first media timeout of the half hit at 14:59.
Several exchanged free throws pushed up the score for both sides, but the Commodores still led, 52-46, at the 12:30 mark.
Archie and Tanner both exchanged tough layups, before Miles broke away on a steal all the way to the basket. But the Cowboys kept hanging around, not allowing the Commodores to break away and cruise to victory. Dual hit a bucket just as quick on the opposite end, keeping it to a 4-point game at 56-52 with the 8:53 to go in the game.
The game continued to be defined by who could find open looks on the perimeter, as Tanner and McNeese’s DJ Richards each hit a 3-pointer to keep the Commodores’ advantage to 6 points. An injured McNeese player at the 4:21 mark stopped play with Vanderbilt up 65-60 and still struggling to pull away.
Things began to shift in the Commodores’ favor, though, as Tanner knocked in a deep ball with 3:51 on the clock to get the score to 68-60. He then followed it up with an extremely contested made layup to give Vanderbilt the 10-0 lead, the final dagger to give the Commodores the win. Richards hit a deep 3 but it was all too late. Vanderbilt cruised to victory the rest of the way, fending off the potential upset in the first round.
Vanderbilt now faces Nebraska in the Round of 32 Saturday, March 21, at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
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