Nesmith can't keep Vandy from unlucky 13
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Vanderbilt guard Aaron Nesmith had game highs in points (24) and rebounds (14), but that wasn't enough to keep Vanderbilt from falling a 13th-straight time, this one, to visiting Auburn at Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.
VU forward Yanni Wetzell had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Auburn guard Jared Harper, one of four Tigers in double figures, led the way with 16 points and eight assists, and hit some big shots in the second half.
The Commodores kept making runs, and Auburn kept answering.
With Vandy within three, Harper hit back-to-back 3s, giving Auburn a 40-31 lead with 12:59 left.
Vanderbilt made closed within five with six minutes left, as a loose ball went into VU forward Joe Toye's hands. The Commodores looked poised for some easy points on the other end, but Toye couldn't come up with the ball.
Seconds later, guard Bryce Brown drilled a long 3, just beating the shot clock with 6:08 to play.
VU's last gasp came when Nesmith hit a pair of free throws with 2:55 left, cutting the score to 57-53. About a minute later, Saben Lee turned it over, and Malik Dunbar hit a corner 3 with 1:33 remaining to basically ice the game.
Vanderbilt trailed 27-23 at half, with Nesmith's 12 leading the way. Auburn took the lead late in the first period and never trailed in the second half.
Vanderbilt heads to No. 1 Tennessee for a Tuesday contest.
What went right
Maybe it was defense, maybe it was Auburn having a bad night, but Vanderbilt held the Tigers to 34.7 percent shooting, and 36 percent from 3.
And to that, Vanderbilt gets some credit for slowing the tempo and making Auburn work in its half-court offense. Ken Pomeroy had it as a 62-possession game, tied for the lowest possessions in a game involving Auburn this season. That tied with the Ole Miss game on Feb. 13, and maybe it wasn't a bad idea, since Auburn dropped a home game to the Rebels that evening. Anyway, the Tigers had just one 2-point basket in their half-court offense during the first half.
The Commodores shot 76.1 percent from the foul line.
What went wrong
The downside of the slow-down game was that the Commodores, far too often, worked the shot clock down to the final seconds, and then scrambled to find good options. Lee often stood 30 feet from the basket and waited until seven or eight seconds left on the shot clock to initiate the offense, where one of three things usually happened: the shot clock ran out, a player who's not a good shooter had to heave a desperation 3, or, in the case of the possession preceding the Dunbar 3, Lee threw a bad pass and turned it over.
It's worth asking if Lee's hitting a wall. He's played at least 35 minutes in nine of the last 10 games, fouling out in 23 minutes in the other. It was his second straight game with four points, not what you want from your leading active scorer.
To that, half-court execution was awful. Vandy shot 33 percent, turned it over 19 times and had just 16 made field goals.
Starting forward Simi Shittu fouled out with 8:35 left.
Player of the Game
Who else? Aaron Nesmith wasn't efficient from the field (6 of 21) but Vanderbilt had nobody else, forcing him to take more shots than he probably wanted. Three of those were 3-pointers and he hit all nine of his free throws. He also played a game-high 37 minutes.
Notes
VU started Lee, Nesmith, Matt Ryan, Clevon Brown and Shittu.
Nesmith hit a 3 at the 16:01 mark of the first half, marking the 1,056th-straight game in which the ‘Dores have hit a 3.
