Buzzer-Beater Lifts Commodores Over Shockers

Buzzer-Beater Lifts Commodores Over Shockers

3/21/2005

Box Score | Post-game Quotes | Photo Gallery

NASHVILLE (AP) – Corey Smith hit a layup as time expired and Vanderbilt advanced to the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament with a 65-63 victory over Wichita State on Monday night.

Mario Moore hit nine 3-pointers and scored a career-high 31 points.

Vanderbilt (20-13) will play at Memphis on Wednesday night for a berth in the NIT semifinals in New York.

With the game tied 63-63 with 0.7 seconds left, Jason Holwerda threw a length of the court pass to an open Smith, who caught the ball and laid it in as time expired, touching off a wild celebration on the Memorial Gym floor.

Moments eariler, Wichita State’s Jamar Howard nearly forced overtime by converting an offensive rebound off a missed free throw with 0.7 seconds remaining to tie the game 63-63.

Vanderbilt’s DeMarre Carroll blocked a potential layup by Howard with six seconds remaining to protect a 61-60 Vanderbilt lead. Moore made two free throws to push Vanderbilt’s lead to 63-60. The Commodores fouled Sean Ogirri, who made the first foul shot and missed the second intentionally.

Moore hit four 3-pointers in the final four minutes as Vanderbilt recovered from blowing a 12-point lead second-half lead.

Julian Terrell scored 14 points and had 14 rebounds for Vanderbilt, which extended its non-conference winning streak to 24 games.

Moore has a history of playing well in the postseason, averaging 17.2 points per game in 11 career SEC, NCAA and NIT tournament games while just 9.7 in regular season games. Against Wichita State, he poured in 17 points in the first half.

Paul Miller led Wichita State (22-10) with 13 points and six rebounds. PJ Couisanrd, Matt Braueuer and Randy Burns all scored 11.

Vanderbilt lost a 12-point second half lead when Wichita State went on a 17-2 run to take a 50-46 lead with 4:36 to play.

The Shockers saw their season end with a defeat in the NIT for the third straight year.

Vanderbilt advanced to the NIT quarterfinals for the first time since 1998.

Vanderbilt set a school-record for home victories with 17 and records back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 1993-94.

Post-game Quotes

Head Coach Kevin Stallings:

“It was pretty exciting, I must say. We feel very fortunate to have won tonight. They outplayed us in the second half. I thought we got a very tentative in the second half, but in the end, we came away with the victory.

“Mario (Moore) was spectacular and Julian (Terrell) was as good as he’s ever been. If not for those two, our season is over right now.”

The last-second, full-court play (Jason Holwerda to Corey Smith) that resulted in Commodore win:
“We ran a play that we’ve used in the past, just with a few new twists. It worked better than we hoped for. We were playing to get Corey one-on-one and just have an attempt at a basket.
“Their guys switched (on the play) and both of them went with one guy. It left Corey open. Jason (Holwerda) was just going to throw and I must say he did a great job.

Talk about your next opponent, the Memphis Tigers:
“Memphis is a very good team that is playing very well right now. I heard their coach say that his team didn’t have a defensive weakness. That’s quite a statement.”

Mario Moore:
The last-second, full-court play (Jason Holwerda to Corey Smith) that resulted in Commodore win:
“We really just tried to get it to the post as fast as we could. Corey is the biggest, toughest, meanest guy I know so we just put it in the air and let him put it up.”

“We work on end-of-game situations that was one of the plays we work on.”

On playing at Memphis Wednesday night:
“It’s a very tough team in a very tough environment.”

On his school-record tying nine three-poinnters:
“I didn’t know (it was that many). I was just shooting and it felt like they were gonna go.”

Corey Smith:
On his defender tracking Mario Moore on the final play:
“I think it was a smart move. It’s just natural instinct to go to him when he’s shooting like that.”

“My first thought was just to catch it. After that I just turned around and put it in.”

Julian Terrell:
On his 14-point, 14-rebound performance:
“I played pretty solid tonight. I think I did pretty well, as long as we won.”

On being more assertive in recent games:
“I agree (I have been more assertive). The difference being the way my teammates play around me. They have made a big effort to get the ball to me and once I get the ball I have great shooters to pass it out to so it opens it up for me.”

Wichita State Coach Mark Turgeon

“We didn’t do what was right on defense at the end of the game. The hardest part was trying to get an offensive rebound put back to tie the game.”

“It was an unbelievable effort by Mario Moore. Vanderbilt wouldn’t have had a chance down the stretch [without him.] We kept trying different things defensively, putting different guys on him.”

“We’re not going to hang our heads because they hit a lay-up with 0.7 seconds left. We never quit and never lost our fight. We found the right set of guys to play with and went with them.”

On coming back from a 12-point deficit:
“We had no life. Matt [Braeuer] got us going. Our defense was phenomenal, but we could have rebounded better. The game was much more physical than we were used to. Matt gave us a spark and started making big shots. I knew if we started to play, we’d have a chance to win.”