Vanderbilt made an improbable late-game comeback, but couldn't finish it in a 68-61 loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa at Coleman Coliseum on Saturday evening.
Simi Shittu led Vandy in points (16) and rebounds (11). Aaron Nesmith scored 14, and Yanni Wetzell added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Commodores (9-18, 0-14 Southeastern Conference), who set a new school record with a 15th-straight loss.
Kira Lewis led Alabama with 19 points. Donta Hall had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Dazon Ingram, 13 and 10.
Vanderbilt fell behind double-digits early, and trailed 15 at half. Alabama's lead was 57-34 when Lewis hit a 3-pointer with 11:17 left.
That's when the Commodores rattled off 15 in a row before Alabama guard Herbert Jones's dunk with 4:30 left snapped the string.
The teams traded points most of the rest of the way, with Vandy getting its closest from there at the final margin.
It got ugly early. Alabama's Riley Norris hit back-to-back 3s, putting the Crimson Tide up 25-6 with 9:27 left in the first half. Back-to-back Lewis 3s made it 31-9 not two minutes later.
Alabama led 35-20 at half.
Vanderbilt returns home to face Florida at Memorial Gym. Tipoff is Wednesday at Central.
What went right
The last 11 minutes looked markedly different that the first 29. VU coach Bryce Drew summed it up this way: "We got some defensive stops. ... We also started taking care of the ball better."
The five on the floor much of the time were Shittu, Nesmith, Wetzell, Ryan and Max Evans. It started with defense, where Wetzell and Shittu were tough underneath
What went wrong
Vanderbilt has been miserable out of the gate offensively so many times, and was again on Saturday. Shittu had VU's first six points, at which point VU was down 25-6 and had nine turnovers, many of which Drew termed "unforced."
VU was unable to get into any sort of offensive flow during that time. A lot of it was Hall's presence underneath; the Alabama forward swatted three shots in the first half, and seemed to be in the Commodores' head even when he wasn't doing so.
For the game, VU had 17 turnovers to Alabama's 10. It also couldn't find its outside shot, hitting 23.5 percent on 17 tries.
Point guard Saben Lee slipped on the floor and suffered a mild injury, but came back late. He played only 29 minutes.
Alabama's Norris rolled over Clevon Brown's ankle with 8:11 left in the first half. Brown played five total minutes and saw just seconds of action from that point on.
Player of the Game
Was this a breakout for Simi Shittu? It was probably the freshman's best game of the season. Shittu ran the point during most of VU's late run, which seemed to energize him on both ends of the floor. In terms of effort, it may have been his best game of the year.
On offense, Shittu had three rebounds, 16 points and four assists to just two turnovers, and made some terrific passes. He played under control and eliminated most, maybe all, of the bad shots he's taken lately, going 7 of 13 from the floor. VU also shot 55.6 percent in the second half, so some credit has to go to him there.
Defensively, Shittu ripped down eight rebounds and played hard on that end.
It'll be interesting to see if VU carries this over and lets him do it more.
Notes
VU started Lee, Nesmith, Ryan, Brown and Shittu.
Nesmith hit a 3 with 6:27 remaining in the first half, extending VU's streak of games with a made 3 to
