A miserable evening in Memorial

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—It was a miserable evening for Vanderbilt from start to finish in Kentucky’s 87-52 demolition of the Commodores at Memorial Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

Vanderbilt had 20 turnovers, hit 37 percent from the field and 50 percent from the foul line, suffering its worst loss of the year.

This one comes on the loss of a 31-point defeat at Oklahoma, which was previously Vandy's worst defeat this season. The Commodores (9-11, 0-7 Southeastern Conference) have lost eight straight.

Guards Saben Lee (15 points) and Aaron Nesmith (14) led Vandy in scoring, with forward Matt Ryan chipping in 12.

Forward Simi Shittu was held scoreless for the first time in his career, despite playing 29 minutes. He went 0 for 5 from the field and had four turnovers.

UK had a double-figure lead barely 10 minutes in, and led 45-15 at half.

“[The first half] was unacceptable, some of our sprinting back [on defense with] certain guys,” Vandy coach Bryce Drew said.

It was hard to describe how poorly Vanderbilt played in the first half, except to note that Vandy had five made field goals to 14 turnovers (and only five came off UK steals), and, that Wildcat forward P.J. Washington (18 points before half, 26 for the game) out-scored VU in the period by himself.

Vandy’s first half encompassed just about every element of bad basketball—bad shots, careless turnovers, lack of effort on defense, you name it.

Even changing strategy didn’t help. Vandy opened in man-to-man, but, while the lead was in single digits, also showed the zone it used to successfully slow Kentucky in the first meeting in Lexington.

Neither worked. Kentucky was 5 for 10 in 3-pointers in the first half, and 10 of 17 on the night.

“I think guys are playing hard,” Drew said. “We’re playing against guys that are faster. They’re just faster. They’re bigger and longer right now.”

The best thing that could be said was that the second half was proportionately better. Still, VU never got closer than 28, and trailed by 38 at one point.

An early stretch in the game’s opening minutes typified what was ahead for the Commodores.

UK’s Tyler Herro (12 points) missed a jumper, but nobody boxed out Washington, who soared above the rim, grabbed the rebound and jammed it home in one swoop at 14:47.

The next trip down, Shittu—a 5.9 percent 3-point shooter entering the evening—badly missed a 3-pointer. Herro missed on the other end, but Shittu pulled the rebound before turning it over off the dribble seven seconds later. That led to a Herro lay-up and a Vandy time out.

Nesmith answered with a 3 at 13:34. From there, the ‘Dores scored five points the rest of the half.

Kentucky had no such difficulties with scoring, or much of anything, for that matter. The ‘Cats hit 55.6 percent from the field, 58.8 percent from 3 and 73.9 percent from the foul line, committing just seven turnovers while blocking six shots.

“Kentucky shot the ball sensationally tonight,” Drew said. “Obviously, some of those looks, I wish we’d contested better, but some, I thought we were there.”

VU started Lee, Nesmith, Ryan, Yanni Wetzell and Shittu. Vanderbilt also started that combination in the Georgia loss, the only other time it started that combination.

Wetzell fouled out with 1:28 left.

Lee hit a 3 at the 18:13 mark of the first half, extending Vandy’s streak of games with a made 3-pointer to 1,051 games. Those were Vandy’s first points.