November 22, 2012

Johnson's career-high 28 not enough

ORLANDO, FL -- Any hopes that Vanderbilt's blowout loss at Oregon last weekend was an anomaly proved wrong today, as Vanderbilt fell 75-62 to Davidson at the Old Spice Classic in Orlando.

Sophomore point guard Kedren Johnson scored 28 points, including 4-of-7 from 3, to lead all players. But the only other Commodore in double figures was junior guard Kyle Fuller, with 14.

Davidson had three players score in double figures: Da'Mon Brooks (19), Jake Cohen (14) and Nik Cochran (14). In the second half, the Wildcats beat Vanderbilt inside and out, shooting 62 percent from the field.

"We just had some real mental lapses where we didn't pick up in transition and guys just ran by us," said VU head coach Kevin Stallings. "We had some inexplicable things. I know you're going to get some things you are not accustomed to when you have a young team, but they are a balanced team and they can get you from inside and outside."

A glaring stat was the combined contributions from VU's front line. Junior Rod Odom, sophomore Shelby Moats and redshirt sophomore Josh Henderson combined to score 10 points. Odom missed all five of his 3-pointers, and many were wide open off of set plays. Moats played all 40 minutes and missed both of his attempts. Henderson was consistently out of position on defense and was beaten down the court on run-outs.

"We haven't established any kind of inside game yet and we have some guys tied up and nervous," said Stallings. "There's really no reason for that because I don't have anyone else to bring in. We're going to have to adjust our lineup because we cannot afford to play like this the rest of the weekend."

That Johnson had perhaps his most impressive statistical game of his career, and VU lost by double digits to a Southern Conference foe, is an ominous sign for a Commodore club that is still reeling from the loss of its top seven players in the offseason.

"I thought he was aggressive and attacked the rim," said Stallings of Johnson. "But when you give up 62 percent in the second half you're probably not going to win."

As a team, VU had a total of six assists and 12 turnovers -- five of those by Johnson, and all in the first half. Davidson, on the other hand, had 14 assists to just nine turnovers.

"This team doesn't have the kind of margin of error where you can allow a team get too many offensive rebounds or open 3s," continued Stallings. "It's a shame because we're having to play Kyle and Kedren way more minutes than we'd like to."

VU will play Marist, which fell to West Virginia, tomorrow afternoon.

"We've got to find a way to get better tomorrow than we were today," said Stallings. "Some of the things that happened today were not practice time related. Getting back on defense, covering for somebody, Josh [Henderson] couldn't get back on defense and we didn't cover for him and they get a layup. He's probably 60 percent (healthy) and got very, very winded today. You cannot fault him because he's been out since February. It will be another month before he is at 90 percent."


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