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No. 4-seeded Vanderbilt and No. 5-seeded Tennessee faced off in the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament for the 11th time Friday, March 13. The contest was neck-and-neck throughout, but the Commodores pulled away in the final moments to move on to the semifinals.
The Commodores sent out a familiar starting five in Bridgestone Arena, consisting of guards Duke Miles and Tyler Tanner and forwards Tyler Nickel, AK Okereke and Devin McGlockton.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes gave the nod to guards Bishop Boswell and Ja’Kobi Gillespie and a frontcourt lineup of center Felix Okpara and forwards J.P. Estrella and first-year player Nate Ament in his second game back from injury. Notably, former Commodore Jaylen Carey started the game on the bench.
First half
Despite the game taking place just two miles from Vanderbilt’s campus, the stadium was filled with Tennessee orange and Smokey Grey — a home-esque environment for the state school.
Following a down-to-the-wire matchup between Florida and Kentucky, the Bridgestone crowd was loud and alive, erupting during the announcement of the starting lineups. McGlockton won the tip-off against Okpara, and Vanderbilt struck first with a Duke Miles layup.
Okereke then blocked an Okpara put-back layup attempt on the other end, but Ament got the rebound and was fouled before making one of two free throws. Defensively, Tennessee began trapping Tanner, the All-SEC First Team player, high at the top of pick-and-rolls. Since he had little space to shoot, the sophomore found Okereke twice for open jumpers, but both looks were missed.
After an Estrella jump hook, the Volunteers forced Nickel to the ground and held the ball until a jump ball gave them possession. On that next possession, Gillespie nailed a deep wing three-ball to go up 6-2 with 16:33 left in the half. Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington quickly subbed in center Jalen Washington for McGlockton.
After the first media timeout, first-year forward Chandler Bing made his first appearance of the day for Vanderbilt. His inbound pass out of the break was stolen by Gillespie, but his fast break was halted by a Washington block. Carey subbed in for Okpara and was met with loud booing from the Commodore student section as he bricked a layup attempt. Estrella got the offensive rebound, and due to rough play by Washington, a cylinder foul was called on the senior big man.
Carey then scooped up the Volunteers’ sixth offensive rebound to that point and made a scoop layup to go up 8-4. Tanner responded by making a mid-range jumper, and a few possessions later, Nickel blocked a Boswell floater to maintain momentum. Nickel then had a reach-in foul against Ament to send the game to the second media timeout.
The rivals combined to shoot 5-for-26 from the field in the first eight minutes of the game — evidence of a stout defensive battle. McGlockton made an impressive tip-in to tie the game at eight apiece, which was quickly overshadowed by an alley-oop from Gillespie to Okpara.
Miles then went on a 4-0 run with 10:09 left on the clock, fighting through contact to make a scoop-layup for the second bucket, before Tanner and Washington subbed in for Bing and McGlockton. Okpara continued to dominate above the rim, though, responding with his second put-back dunk of the day.
Off an inbound, Tanner drove to the bucket and got fouled on a made layup before converting the and-one. Tennessee, though, continued to dominate the offensive glass, racking up 11 offensive boards through 12 minutes. After getting fouled on one, the noise from the crowd forced Carey to clank two free throws, showing the Volunteer fans that Commodore Nation was also going to impact the game’s outcome.
Vanderbilt then took an 18-16 lead on a step-back three by Miles, which was quickly matched by a long-ball from Tennessee’s Ethan Burg. Miles then scored his 11th points of the half on a lefty-layup on a pick-and-roll set with center Jayden Leverett. Carey, clearly frustrated by the hate speech from the crowd, then missed two more free throws.
Tanner missed a corner three with 4:29 on the clock, but got his own rebound and was shoved along the baseline, sending the Commodores into the bonus. Nickel hit an open long-ball with 3:38 left before Gillespie converted a fast break layup to make the score 27-25 before the final media timeout of the half.
Miles then made a floater with 2:09 on the clock to take a 29-28 lead, as the transfer from Oklahoma started his day a perfect six-for-six from the field. Nickel banked in a three-pointer to counter a Carey free-throw-line jumper before Boswell threw the ball out-of-bounds. Byington called a timeout with 43.5 seconds remaining to set plays for a two-for-one opportunity. Bing missed a shot attempt on the play, and Barnes called a timeout of his own with 20 seconds to go in the period.
The following possession resulted in a Gillespie layup, as the teams headed to the locker room tied at 31-31. Neither team led by more than four points in the first half.
Second half
The Volunteers got the ball first coming the other way, and Gillespie and Okpara connected for another lob before Okereke airballed a jumper. The next possession, Byington challenged an out-of-bounds call against Miles, which was successful. Tennessee began to implement full-court pressure on the next play, in a tight one-back man-to-man set.
Okereke broke through the press to score a reverse layup before Estrella hit a baseline hook-shot. McGlockton picked up his third foul of the game against Estrella in the post, and Washington quickly checked in for him. The Tennessee fans began to grow loud before Estrella got a third foul of his own.
Miles hit a three-pointer on the next possession to get to 16 points on the day and was hacked by Boswell on a baseline drive the next set, resulting in two made foul shots. Tennessee maintained a 39-38 edge going into the 15:37 media timeout, with Okpara to shoot free throws afterward.
After Okpara missed both, Amari Evans grabbed the board, which led to a deep splash from Gillespie. The guard then pulled up from the left wing on the next possession and drained another one, giving the Volunteers a 45-38 edge. Miles responded with how he has all day — splashing a contested three-pointer and attacking the rim to cut the lead to two points.
McGlockton entered foul trouble by picking up his fourth penalty of the day, forcing Byington to have to rest his star big man. Tanner drew an offensive foul off of Burg with 12:57 left, and Miles missed his first shot of the day on a “heat check” look afterwards. “The Duke” made it up by stealing the ball from Carey and finding Tanner for an easy layup. A Washington block on Evans sent the Commodores running again, this time with Bing converting an and-one layup to give his team the lead going into the 11:51 media timeout.
Miles drained yet another long-ranger to give Vanderbilt a five-point lead, its largest of the day. He helped to maintain it by picking off Ament moments later, once again finding Tanner for a bucket — giving Tanner 13 points and Miles four assists to that point.
Miles was then subbed out for Nickel to stretch his healing hamstring, having 28 points with 10:10 on the clock. Two fouls by Bishop and Okpara, respectively, put Vanderbilt in the bonus, but Tanner hacked Gillespie seconds later to return the favor and allow both teams to shoot free throws for the remainder of the game.
Tanner found Okereke in the corner for an open shot to extend the Commodore lead to seven points, and hit a fadeaway from the elbow the next play. The Volunteers, who had shot 5-for-16 from the charity stripe at the 8:11 mark, kept in the game with four consecutive one-pointers from Ament. At the second media timeout, Vanderbilt led 60-55.
Tennessee moved into the double bonus as Okereke smothered an Ament layup try, as the first-year’s free throw shooting continued to hound the Commodores. Momentum continued Tennessee’s way when Okereke’s corner shot went in-and-out, and Ament hit a pull-up elbow jumper over the Cornell transfer.
Miles had a costly throwaway turnover with 5:28 left as the Volunteers trailed just 61-63. Ament again drew a foul on a drive, and after hobbling when getting up, he cashed only the first attempt. Bing then stole the ball from Ament, and the Commodores joined their foes in the double bonus when Tanner was hacked on his shot attempt.
As had happened for most of the half, Byington broke the press by allowing Okereke to be the primary ball-carrier. When Okpara blocked a Tanner jumper, the second-year coach called his second timeout of the game with 4:09 remaining in the contest.
Burg’s lob pass to Okpara was intercepted by Tanner, but after Washington rebounded an Okereke miss, the Volunteers entangled Miles for a jump ball going in their direction. Up by three points with just under three minutes to go, Estrella was called for an over-the-back that resulted in two made foul shots by Washington.
Gillespie cut the lead back to a single-possession with an elbow jumper, and Barnes called a timeout with 2:10 remaining. Then, Miles took the ball to the basket to put him over the 30-mark. Washington fouled an Ament pull-up with 54 seconds on the clock, but 9 seconds later, Miles threw a lob to Washington from half-court, electrifying the Vanderbilt fans, and effectively sealing the game for the Black and Gold.
Down by five with 31 seconds left, Tennessee began intentionally fouling, and the Commodores ran to a 75-68 victory.
Vanderbilt will play No.1-seeded Florida in the SEC semifinals tomorrow at 12 p.m. CDT at Bridgestone Arena.
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Men’s Basketball: Vanderbilt defeats Tennessee 75-68 in SEC Tournament quarterfinals – The Vanderbilt Hustler
