Vanderbilt loses first game of the season to No. 5 NC State
On a night where the Commodores were undersized, they found themselves losing to No. 5 NC State in the ACC/SEC Challenge, 70-62.
A sloppy first half resulted in a back and forth game between Vanderbilt and No. 5 North Caroline State. The first quarter ended in 22% shooting for the Commodores and being down by two.
Coming into the second quarter, Vanderbilt kept it close until it found itself in a drought. The Commodores went just over five minutes without scoring a point. NC State went on a run and ended the first half with a lead. Vanderbilt was down at the half, 35-26. Jordyn Cambridge had 9 first half points.
Vanderbilt's struggles continued to pour over into the second half. The Commodores gave up 19 third quarter points.
After going down big, Vanderbilt went on a few runs in the fourth quarter. It got as close as eight points, but didn't get any closer than that. The Commodores went on a 12-2 run to end the fourth quarter.
Despite their efforts, the Commodores were handed their first loss of the season, 70-62.
Jordyn Cambridge led the Commodores in scoring with 15 points.
Three quick takes
Scoring struggles struck the Commodores
Vanderbilt had a rough night trying to score against a tough NC State defense. The Commodores ended the first half shooting 32.2% shooting from the field.
The struggles continued throughout the second half. Along with giving up 19 points in the third quarter, Vanderbilt shot 26.2% from the field and did not hit a three in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was the best for the Commodores in terms of shooting. They shot 47.1% from the field and 50% from three-point range. The efficient shooting just happened to come too late.
Being undersized hurt Vanderbilt
One thing that was out of Vanderbilt's control was the size that NC State has. Vanderbilt's starting center, Sacha Washington, stands at 6 feet and 2 inches. Justine Pissott also contributes 6 feet and 4 inches to the starting lineup, but outside of that duo, there isn't much size.
NC State had much more size that Vanderbilt had a tough time with. Washington was matched up with 6 foot 5 inch center, River Baldwin. The guards for the Wolfpack had some height on the Commodores backcourt.
Vanderbilt will have to discover how to score against teams who have the size advantage before heading into SEC play.
Attention to detail
There were some small things that if Vanderbilt learned to fix could have put them back into the contest. One of those were the amount of layups missed.
The Commodores were 13/28 on layups in the contest. Being able to convert just a few more of those missed layups would have changed the trajectory of the game.
Vanderbilt was also outrebounded tonight, 50-35. This is normally a statistic that Vanderbilt has the upper hand on.