Wade Baldwin had a career-high 25 points, and the Commodores never trailed all evening in a 88-74 victory over Tennessee at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville on Wednesday night.

Baldwin was joined in double-figures by Matthew Fisher-Davis (18), Camron Justice (12), Jeff Roberson (11) and Luke Kornet (10), as Vanderbilt took a 21-point halftime lead and never let the Vols get closer than the final margin from there.

Vanderbilt was able to survive foul trouble from Kornet and Damian Jones due to a massive lead most of the night. The Commodores were up 28 at one point, and at least 20 for the entire second half until Tennessee's Armani Moore banked in a lay-up with 6:37 left, cutting the margin to 72-54.

But the Vols had foul trouble of their own; Vanderbilt entered the double bonus with 10:59 remaining, and hit many of its 29 made foul shots (on 39 attempts) from that point on.

The Commodores (11-7) have now won three in a row after starting 0-3 in Southeastern Conference play.

Vanderbilt led 17-12 after Tennessee's Devon Baulkman hit a lay-up with 10:18 left in the first half, and that's when Justice took over for a brief spell. After an exchange of misses, Justice canned a corner 3 off a pass from Baldwin, then added 3s on VU's next two trips, both off assists from Roberson, the last coming on a cross-court pass.

Baulkman hit another lay-up in between, but the freshman's nine points in a 1:01 span put the 'Dores up a dozen, and UT never got closer.

20 percent. That's what Tennessee shot on its 20 3-point attempts, its first successful one not coming until 8:05 left when Tennessee's Kevin Punter cut the lead to 70-50.

Normally, you'd see a box score in which a team took 22 3-pointers in a half and automatically say, "that was too many." But this one had to be seen to be believed; between Tennessee's abysmal effort to get to shooters and excellent ball-movement from Vanderbilt, many a time in which a well-placed, cross-court pass found a shooter, the Commodores had open looks time and time again.

There were few attempts that could even be questioned--one quickie Justice coming after his 3-for-3 in the blink of an eye, comes to mind--but other than that, the Commodores just took advantage of what was given to them in going 10-of-22 from long distance before the break.

Tennessee shut that down in the second half, at which point VU got the ball inside, many times in transition when the Vols slapped on a full-court press. The fact that 20 of VU's 23 made field goals were assisted say a lot about how well the Commodore offense functioned.

Tennessee did wind up with a lot of points at close range, but again, many came late. The Vols had a lot of trouble with Luke Kornet's length, as Vandy's 7-footer blocked five shots and even had some affect on the game when he came out to defend away from the paint on occasion. The Vols' 32.9 percent showing from the floor was indicative of Vandy's effort there.

Kornet's 14 rebounds gave him another double-double, and were part of a 50-board effort as Tennessee managed 43.

All in all, it was a game that set up well for Vanderbilt; the Vols didn't start a player over 6-foot-5 and while Tennessee tried to compensate that, the 'Dores bombed away from the outside. When the Vols played far more aggressively on the perimeter, VU got it inside, and the fouls piled up. When Tennessee pressed, VU broke it more often than not and got a lot of points in transition or in broken-floor situations.

Simply put, Tennessee spent a lot of the night trying to plug one hole or another, but never quite had enough duct tape. It was a 14-point win, but one that was more severe than the final score indicated.

Stop me when you've heard this before: Vanderbilt's Damian Jones got in early foul trouble, picking up his second foul with 12:19 left in the first half as he was positioning for a rebound; it was a questionable whistle against Jones that once again, didn't go his way. The 'Dores kept him on the bench the rest of the half, though VU's 14-6 lead at the time would balloon another 13 points in the next dozen minutes with him off the floor.

This was the worst part: Jones's three second-half fouls were all silly.

One even came as he blatantly pushed a defender trying to dribble the ball 80 feet from the bucket. It's hard to understand how there wasn't more awareness on his part, given this is an issue every single game. On Tuesday, he managed just 19 minutes and was done after being whistled for a push-off with 4:37 left.

What made it worse was that Kornet joined him in second-half foul trouble; he picked up his fourth with 9:54 left, just 30 seconds before Jones joined him with that many. Kornet's snuck up quickly; he didn't get his first until 1:12 left before the half.

Coach Kevin Stallings didn't harp on it, but he wasn't thrilled with how VU closed. With the bigs in foul trouble, the 'Dores had to try some 2-3 zone and it didn't go all that well. Meanwhile, the offense stagnated for a bit in the game's final eight minutes or so.

The 14-point margin could have grown larger, too, if the 'Dores just could have finished from close range. I counted at least eight times in the second half where Vandy had and-one opportunities, but couldn't hit the lay-up or dunk that preceded the free throws.

This is why we watch games, and not just look at box scores: Wade Baldwin was tremendous on Wednesday, and though a lot of his contributions showed up on paper (5-of-9 from the floor, 12-of-13 from the charity stripe, 25 points, four rebounds, five assists and just two turnovers in 35 minutes), it could be argued that the biggest thing he did didn't show up on the stat sheet.

That was helping to hold down Tennessee's Punter, whose first points came on a three-point play with 5:44 in the first half (it was Fisher-Davis who fouled hit) with VU leading by a dozen after his foul shot. Punter came in averaging 22.4 points per game, and though he did get 26, it took 20 shots for him to get there.

It's the kind of game we've come to expect from Baldwin, who, if it weren't for LSU's Ben Simmons, could make a credible run at SEC Player of the Year.

Any time Vanderbilt beats Tennessee in a major sport, it's a big deal to the fan base regardless of the circumstances. For the 'Dores, it was extra-sweet given that the Vols stole a pair of games from them late in Nashville last season.

Ken Pomeroy's computer certainly liked it; VU rose from 30 to 26 as of about 11:15 Central on Wednesday.

The more important computer ranking is the RPI; VU stood at No. 60 according to ESPN through Tuesday's games, and a road victory over the No. 77 team might help that go up a few ticks, depending on what happens elsewhere.

It's hard to believe, but Vanderbilt had posted back-to-back road wins over Kentucky (2006-07) more recently than it had in Knoxville (1993-94) until Wednesday night.

Guess who's next? That's the struggling Wildcats, who were inexplicably beaten by Auburn, 75-70, in their last game on Saturday.

Another top-ranked recruiting class has brought mixed results for coach John Calipari. Center Skal Labissiere, the top-rated player in the 2016 class, isn't even playing double-digit minutes. Five-star guard Isaiah Briscoe (No. 10) is struggling from 3 (18.2 percent) and from the foul line (35 percent). Surprisingly, Kentucky has lost four times to teams ranked 64th or worse by Pomeroy.

That said, it's too early to write off the 'Cats from doing special things; five UK players, including one of the league's best point guards in Tyler Ulis, were former five-star recruits. Three more were four-star players coming into UK.

Pomeroy picks a 73-70 Kentucky win, with Vandy having a 38 percent chance of an upset.