To conclude arguably the most triumphant weekend in the last decade for Vanderbilt basketball, the Commodores upset the number 15 ranked Lady Vols 71-70 in Memorial.
This game was all kinds of historic for both this team and the program in general. It marks the first time under Shea Ralph that Vandy has beaten Tennessee, it snaps an eight game losing streak to the Vols, it is the first time in 10 years that Vandy has beaten Tennessee at home, and was the program’s 900th overall win. In a much more immediate sense, this gives the ‘Dores a much, much needed boost by snapping a 3 game SEC losing streak and putting them back on track to not only make the NCAA tournament but fight for good seeding.
Vanderbilt was led by Mikayla Blakes, Khamil Pierre, and Iyanna Moore, who had 23, 21, and 17 points, respectively. Tennessee’s top scorer was Talaysia Cooper who had 22 points.
This win did not come easily by any means, as the ‘Dores blew a double digit lead in the 4th quarter and were down by 5 with under 2 minutes to go.
The game opened up about as well as it could have for Vanderbilt, with both Iyanna Moore and Mikayla Blakes draining 2 threes in the first minute. Tennessee came storming back, though, as Talaysia Cooper showed why she is in contention for SEC player of the year by draining 2 threes of her own and slicing Vanderbilt’s defense apart whenever she drove the ball. The rest of the first quarter was more or less a stalemate with both teams playing solid basketball. Jordyn Oliver hit a layup with 9 seconds remaining to tie it up at 21 and Tennessee was unable to get a shot off to end the quarter.
The second quarter, however, was a totally different story as Vandy locked down on defense and held the Lady Vols to just 5 points. Yes, the electric Tennessee offense that is averaging 95.8 points per game was held to 5 points in a quarter. Tennessee went ice cold from 3 and had scoring droughts of 2, 2.5, and 4 minutes in the quarter. Vanderbilt’s offense did well enough to extend the lead to 11, highlighted by a Madi Greene buzzer beating floater to end the half. The Lady Vols were, frankly, lucky to not be down by 20 or more in that half, as Vanderbilt blew several transition opportunities or wide open shots. They probably should’ve scored around 8-15 more points that half.
The third quarter mirrored the first, as Tennessee came out strong but Vanderbilt, and particularly Khamil Pierre who got to the rim and the free throw line at ease, answered back. Tennessee also figured out that just as they had no answer for Pierre, Vandy had none for Cooper. Cooper routinely got to her spot in the paint and hit fadeaway after fadeaway over Vanderbilt defenders (who were by no means playing poor defense). Late in the quarter the game began to get testy, as Pierre and Samara Spencer got double techs as after Spencer fouled Pierre on a drive, Pierre dropped the ball on her and Spencer fired it at her back in return. This brought the tension in Memorial up, as the thousands of Vol fans who had been quiet since the first quarter came back to life. The quarter ended with Vanderbilt up 54-45.
The first 8 minutes of the final quarter went just about as poorly as you could hope if you were a Vandy fan, as Tennessee methodically got stops and refused to let Vanderbilt pull away. Graduate guard Jewel Spear hit two threes in quick succession to tie the game at 57 a piece with 5 minutes remaining in the game. After a quick mid range from Greene re-established the Vanderbilt lead at 59-57, Tennessee went on a 9-2 run that gave them a 66-61 lead with 2 minutes remaining. At this point the Lady Vols had all of the momentum; it looked like Vandy was fading late and would be subject to the same fate they suffered against LSU. However, unlike the last few games, the ‘Dores set their jaws and proved they knew how to win. Iyanna Moore hit 2 tough jumpers to bring the lead down to 1. Mikayla Blakes and Khamil Pierre both hit two free throws which gave Vanderbilt the lead at 69-68. Even after Vanderbilt blew a defensive coverage leading to Tennessee getting a layup to retake the lead with 4 seconds remaining, they executed a play to get Pierre a free drive at the rim which she missed but Blakes followed up to give Vanderbilt a decisive 71-70 lead with 0.8 seconds remaining.
The significance of this game cannot be overstated for this program. After a three game skid there were, rightfully, some questions being asked about the roster and whether the team was as good as we had initially thought. After this, however, those questions have been answered as the team proved that they can contend with the best. I would not be surprised if there was even some doubt in the locker room about whether or not they could compete with and beat the upper-echelon SEC teams, this should put all of those to rest.
Finally, on a day where yet again Memorial Gymnasium was taken over by Tennessee fans, Shea Ralph finally has a signature win to point to when asking people to come out to games. Nothing gets Vanderbilt’s fanbase fired up like beating Tennessee, and I am sure that there are some who wish they could have experienced it for the second time in a weekend. Now they’ll have a compelling reason to not miss out on experiencing any more Vanderbilt wins.
