Vanderbilt survives a scare on the road and finished strong to take down Dayton, 80-66.

Vanderbilt started this game out hot. The Commodores went on a 13-0 run midway through the quarter and forced 12 Dayton turnovers.

The second quarter was a bit of a different story. They shot just 20%, and by halftime, their lead was cut to seven.

The struggles carried over into the third quarter. What was once a 20 point lead had vanished and the Flyers managed to tie it up.

Vanderbilt ended the quarter holding on to a three point lead.

The fourth quarter was the best 10 minutes since the first. The Commodores regained control of the contest.

They found a double-digit lead with a few minutes left in the game and made sure it stayed that way.

Vanderbilt won its last road nonconference game to advance to 11-1.

Three quick takes

Welcome home, Madison Greene

The Columbus, Ohio, native had the homecoming people dream of.

"What an awesome game for her to play so well," said Ralph. "It was really cool, she had a bunch of family there. One thing about Madison Greene, she always rises to the occasion because this is how she trains."

Greene opened the first quarter with 13 points and knocked down three 3-pointers.

She continued to score at a high level and finished the game with 25 points, which was a new career high.

The sophomore also contributed five rebounds and three steals.

Importance of tempo

The tempo played a big roll in the game tonight.

When Vanderbilt started out in a full court press, Dayton really struggled.

"We want to control the tempo. We want to make sure that was suffocate them with our defense," Ralph said. "I thought we did a really good job of that in the first quarter when our shots were falling and it felt really nice and pretty, then it got a little mucky."

Between the second and third quarter, the Flyers took advantage the moment the Commodores' stepped off the gas in the slightest.

"They got some wide open shots and three and I felt like in that moment we quit playing. We quit playing the brand of basketball that we play and when that happened, the lead got eliminated."

When a team controls the pace the way a game is played, it's massive. Tonight, Vanderbilt got a good taste of how valuable it really is.

Big contributions outside of scoring

"We had a few players that just decided we were going to win today."

Two players that really helped this win were Aiyana Mitchell and Jordyn Oliver.

"Aiyana Mitchell came in and provided some incredible minutes in the fourth quarter. The leadership off Iyana Moore and Jordyn Oliver., [Jordyn] had a great fourth quarter after getting smacked right in the face."

Oliver had a solid game all around, finishing with six points, seven assists and five rebounds. She also put up three blocks, with two coming at crucial times in the fourth quarter.

Mitchell posted only two points and three rebounds, but her presence around the rim was extremely valuable.