Dores Ice Cats: Vanderbilt Stomps Kentucky 80-55
After a topsy-turvy start to SEC play, Vanderbilt continued their run of better play by dominating Kentucky 80-55 despite 2 key players being out. Duke Miles and Frankie Collins’ absence meant that Vanderbilt would be extremely shorthanded in the backcourt and that Tyler Tanner would have to step up. And step up he did. Tanner was the star of the show, putting up 19 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen led the way for Kentucky, scoring 20 and 15, respectively.
While Tanner was certainly the biggest star of the night, the contributions from everyone else, even the most unlikely sources, is as much of a story. Tyler Nickel scored 19 points on 50% shooting while playing one of the best defensive games I can remember him having. Devin McGlockton dominated the boards, recording 12 rebounds, but finally found his shooting stroke as he scored 11 points with 3 made 3s. AK Okereke had 9, Mike James scored 5 points, and Jayden Leverette had 6 points and 2 poster dunks. Maybe most impressive of all, though, was Chandler Bing’s 11 points in 26 minutes to go along with outstanding defense.
Game Recap
The Commodores blitzed Kentucky from the start, absolutely suffocating the Wildcats on defense. The ‘Dores got out to a 15-4 lead with Tyler Tanner scoring 8 of those points, all in the paint. From that point on Vandy just never let off the gas while Kentucky struggled to make anything on the offensive end. The Commodore lead got up 29-12 after a Tyler Nickel made 3 before Kentucky made a small run and Mark Byington had to turn to a lineup of Tanner, James, Bing, McGlockton, and Leverett. Just when conventional logic would suggest that Kentucky had an opportunity to get back into the game, that lineup went on a 9-0 run and extended the Vanderbilt lead to 19-41. Vandy led 43-23 going into halftime.
The second half picked up right where the first left off. Simply put, Vanderbilt made winning plays while Kentucky could not. The second half was not as dominant as the first, Vandy didn’t do as well with rebounding and struggled with their offensive efficiency, but they never let Kentucky feel like they had a chance to get back in the game. Tyler Tanner made a highlight stepback 3 after another mini run by Kentucky, the team got to the free throw line and converted them consistently, and the defensive effort never let up. Vandy slowly grew the lead until it ballooned to 72-44 with just over 5 minutes remaining. At that point the Big Blue faithful started to vacate Memorial Gymnasium, and the team just had fun. The final minute (when Bing, Leverett, Jaylon Dean-Vines, Miles Keefe, and Coleson Messer were on the floor), Vandy got two steals that led to an explosive Chandler Bing dunk and (another) Jayden Leverett putback poster. Vanderbilt would end up winning 80-55.
Box Score
