Women’s Basketball: Three takeaways from No. 5 Vanderbilt’s 87-77 win at Tennessee – The Vanderbilt Hustler

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No. 5 Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball (27-3, 13-3 SEC) traveled to Knoxville Sunday for its final regular-season contest to take on Tennessee (16-11, 8-7 SEC). The ’Dores entered the game coming off a big win over No. 25 Alabama at home, while the Vols entered the contest trying to find some momentum headed into the SEC Tournament this week.  
Although Vanderbilt led the Volunteers 20-16 at the end of the first-quarter, it trailed the Orange by six at the halftime break. However, a gritty second half performance allowed the Commodores to pull away slowly and led to the ’Dores walking away from Rocky Top with a 10-point win.  
Mikayla Blakes and Aubrey Galvan were, again, outstanding. The backcourt duo combined for 58 of Vanderbilt’s 87 total points while Blakes added her 11th 30+ point performance of the season.  
Fast break points 
Heading into this matchup, fast-break points were something that both teams did extremely well. Seemingly, Tennessee’s system allowed it to have the upper hand over the ’Dores. Vols’ head coach Kim Caldwell, with her ice-hockey-like shift changes, turned heads over the last two seasons for her emphasis on a breakneck speed of play and turnover to point conversion rate. However, it was Vanderbilt who held the upper hand in this statistical category, and it paid dividends.  
Vanderbilt led the contest in the first quarter with 10 fast-break points compared to Tennessee’s four. At the center of this was Blakes and Galvan, who stretched out the Vols’ offense by finding long passes down court to players like Sacha Washington and Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda. In the second quarter, however, the ’Dores slowed down on the fast breaks as the Tennessee defense became less compact. In turn, the Vols logged six second-quarter fast-break points while the Commodores logged just four.
However, the Commodores turned the tempo back up in the third quarter, logging 8 fast break points — double that of the Volunteers.  This trend continued for the Black and Gold, where they won the fast-break point battle, 27-19, a statistical category that directly aided in the double-digit defeat.
Steals and turnovers 
When Tennessee’s offense gets rolling, one thing that its defense does best is generate steals and turnovers, and that’s exactly what it did to disrupt the ’Dores offense and keep the game close in the first half. Vanderbilt, which averaged 11.4 steals per game, had zero at the half. The Vols had generated four steals at the half and recorded eight points off turnovers, which more than accounted for their six-point lead at the break.  
It was another steal with just over four minutes remaining in the third quarter that swung the Volunteers back into a 56-54 lead. However, the Commodores picked up some momentum of their own when, just seconds later, Galvan came away with a steal of her own that converted into points on the other end of the court. Vanderbilt continued to protect the ball in the second half much better than it did in the first, conceding just three steals while logging five of its own. In a game that came down to a mere handful of points and was never out of reach for the Volunteers, the ability of the ’Dores to take care of the basketball proved critical to the victory. 
Tertiary point production 
In the first half of play, Blakes and Galvan accounted for 33 of Vanderbilt’s 37 points. The Commodores desperately needed to get a third scorer into the mix. While post player Sacha Washington had an early start, she was benched for a good portion of the first half and some of the second due to foul trouble — she picked up her third just minutes into the third quarter.  
However, Ralph kept the graduate student in the game, recognizing her importance to the ’Dores’ success, and it proved to be the right move. Washington’s six third-quarter points were second only to Blakes who had 15. She also added four rebounds and drew two fouls. Although she only added another four points in the fourth quarter, her third-quarter effort, while in foul trouble no less, allowed the ’Dores to pull away from their competition.  
Vanderbilt will next head to Greenville, South Carolina, for the SEC Tournament. Since the ’Dores have officially secured a double-bye, they will play Friday, March 6.  
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