Vandy fell short of what would have been an astounding upset and comeback tonight, losing to Auburn 68-80. In a game where Vanderbilt competed their hearts out but simply couldn’t get over the hump, Auburn’s star power and elite defense proved to be too much to overcome.

Vanderbilt was led by Jason Edwards who scored 13 points and Devin McGlockton who posted a 10 point 13 rebound day. Auburn was led by Denver Jones and Chaney Johnson who had 21 and 20, respectively. The ‘Dores held NPOY candidate Johni Broome to an inefficient 17 points, but Auburn’s depth was simply too much to deal with.

Auburn began the game by absolutely blitzing Vandy, jumping out to a 15-0 lead and looking like they were about to blow them out of the water. Vanderbilt settled things down and battled back, though, getting it down to a 2 point lead as Auburn went into the half up 34-32.

In the second half, Auburn’s depth and size took over. Vanderbilt took a brief lead just over 3 minutes into the half, getting up 45-42, but lost it as Auburn responded with a 15-4 run and never looked back. During this run Auburn realized that Vanderbilt simply could not contend with their size while only one of McGlockton or Carey were on the court, and Chaney Johnson went on a 10-0 run by himself while bullying Tyler Nickel, who weighs significantly less, in the post. Vanderbilt simply could not pull things back as Auburn slowly increased their lead throughout the remainder of the half.

Once again, Vanderbilt gave up two backbreaking runs to opposing teams, as that 15-0 run to start and 15-4 run in the second half put the game out of reach. This trend of giving up runs continues, and it has cost them in their last several games. Vandy has to find a way to stifle those runs or get a bucket of their own in order to not let the opposing team’s momentum get too far out of hand.

On a related note, the rotations in the second half were questionable to put it nicely. It’s no coincidence that during the 15-4 Tiger run in the second half Grant Huffman was running the point and Tyler Nickel was playing power forward. Recently, the ‘Dores’ offense has been a shell of itself when Huffman is running the point; while Nickel at the 4 is not necessarily a bad thing, against this Auburn team it was a complete mismatch (and one that was exploited). While Coach Byington has always been willing to have offensive/defensive subs and get players early rest in the half, he cannot make these egregious errors.

On a more positive note, this is the 3rd consecutive game (and 4th in their last 5) where Jaylen Carey has been one of the best players on the floor. The big man came in and made an immediate difference in the first half, once again winning rebounds on the offensive end and giving Vanderbilt some much needed offense. Arguably more impressively, he competed very well on the defensive end, holding Broome to only 2 points in the first half and 10 in the second before Broome got some garbage time buckets and free throws. It’s not outrageous to say that he outperformed one of the favorites to win National Player of the Year – who would’ve thought that after the start of SEC play? He remains a key to Vanderbilt’s success both now and in the future, and we may be getting a glimpse of a stalwart for the next 2 years.

Ultimately, Vanderbilt once again showed remarkable fight and grit to keep this a game against one of the most talented teams to ever play in Memorial Gymnasium, but intangibles are not enough to beat teams of this caliber. Vandy will need to put this behind them quickly as they have a marquee matchup in Thompson-Boling Stadium this Saturday, and Tennessee will be looking for revenge.