March 5, 2010
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Vanderbilt Notes | South Carolina Notes
TV: ESPN2 | Radio: 104.5 FM | XM: 199 Sirius: 211
#13/19 Vanderbilt closes out its 2009-10 regular season with a home game against South Carolina this Saturday afternoon. Tip off is set for 1 p.m. CT, and the game can be seen live on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com. The radio call can be heard on the Vanderbilt-ISP Radio Network and vucommodores.com, with Joe Fisher and Tim Thompson courtside with all of the action.
Vanderbilt will honor senior Jermaine Beal and senior managers Sam Ferry and Justin Wheeler after the game in their last appearances at Memorial Gym. Beal, the Commodores’ lone senior player to be honored Saturday, will leave the Vanderbilt program as the winningest four-year player in the history of the program. The senior point guard from DeSoto, Texas, currently has 90 wins in his four-year career – the previous best four-year total of wins came from 1965-68, when Vanderbilt won 87 contests.
The Commodores won their third game in six days when they defeated Florida, 64-60, Tuesday night in Gainesville. The win came on the heals of a 96-96 overtime win over Georgia on February 25 and an 89-72 win over Arkansas in Fayetteville on February 27. It also marked the sixth win on the road in league play for Vanderbilt, the most of the Stallings era and tied for the most since divisional play began in the SEC during the 1991-92 season. The 1992-93 Commodore team also went 6-2 on the road in SEC competition.
Freshman John Jenkins led the Commodores with 18 points, all on three-pointers, in the win over the Gators. Junior center A.J. Ogilvy tallied 16 points and eight rebounds, and Beal added 13 points and six assists in the win. Vanderbilt held Florida to 36.5% from the floor, the third time in the last four games VU has held an opponent to under 40% from the floor. The Commodores also held the Gators to 15.4% from three (2-for-13).
Senior Jermaine Beal leads a very balanced Commodore offensive attack with 14.5 points per game. Sophomore Jeffery Taylor and A.J. Ogilvy average 13.9 points per contest, and Jenkins also averages double figures with 10.6 points per game.
Saturday’s meeting with South Carolina will be the second of the season with the Gamecocks; Vanderbilt claimed the first meeting, 89-79, January 16 in Columbia. Ogilvy led four Commodore players in double figures with 22 points in the first meeting with South Carolina.
Vanderbilt leads the all-time series between the two schools, 23-22, and the Commodores lead the series in games played at Memorial Gym, 12-9. Vanderbilt has won seven out of the last eight meetings with South Carolina.
Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings has a 10-11 record all-time against South Carolina, but has won seven out of his last eight games against the Gamecocks. He has a 4-6 record against South Carolina at Memorial Gym.
South Carolina enters the game with a 14-15 overall record, 5-10 in SEC play.
The Gamecocks are led by one of the league’s best players, Devan Downey, who leads the SEC in scoring overall at 22.5 points per game and also in league games at 26.2 points per game. Other active players averaging double figures for the Gamecocks are Brandis Raley-Ross (11.1) and Sam Muldrow (10.). Muldrow leads the team in rebounding with 6.2 rebounds per game.
