NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt’s defense suffocated visiting Liberty on Monday inside Memorial Gymnasium and the Commodores easily eliminated the Flames from the Women’s National Invitation Tournament with a 71-45 win.
Vandy (16-18) advances to face Middle Tennessee (25-7) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Murfreesboro. The Blue Raiders beat the Commodores 55-46 on Nov. 15 at Middle Tennessee.
On Monday, Vanderbilt held Liberty to 28.3 percent shooting. The Flames made just 17 field goals and turned the ball over 23 times – their season ended at 28-5.
“Every team left, we talk about this in our locker room all the time, people that are playing basketball right now in March are all really good,” Vanderbilt head coach Shea Ralph said. “(Liberty) had a great season. It was fun to watch them play as we were preparing and it was also fun to come in tonight, get a win and understand that we’re going to be continuing to play.”
Iyana Moore was the offensive catalyst for the Dores with 25 points. She made seven 3-pointers in the win.
Jordyn Cambridge added 15 points while Sacha Washington scored 17 and grabbed seven rebounds. Cambridge also recorded four steals to give her 125 for the season, a Vanderbilt single-season record.
Vanderbilt has now won 3 of 4.
“There is so many people out there that doubted us, but it definitely doesn’t matter. It just matters all of us in our locker room who believe in us,” Moore said. “We try to prove it each and every day and every time we step on the court that we’re capable of doing a lot a lot of things that people don’t think we’re capable of.”
Offense was not in the cards for either team in the first quarters as the two squads to start 1-for-17 shooting from the field. Vanderbilt missed its first seven shots and didn’t make a bucket until the 2:29 mark – a Moore 3-pointer that put the Commodores ahead 7-4.
Moore’s shot helped spark an 8-0 run before an Emma Hess triple and Dee Brown free throw got Liberty within 12-8 going into the second period.
“We had to keep going,” Washington said of the slow start. “We couldn’t worry about what was going on in that moment. We knew that it would come eventually and we just had to take it one play at a time, one possession at a time and once it came we really started to get going.”
Moore knocked down two more 3s to start the next quarter and give Vandy an 18-11 advantage. Cambridge’s layup from the left side of the lane gave the Commodores a 23-15 lead with 4:22 left in the half.
Liberty suffered through a field goal drought of 4:26 while Vanderbilt’s lead grew to as many as nine. Bella LaChance then pushed that margin to 31-20 with a pair of free throws and a triple from the right side.
Vandy would settle for a 31-22 lead at the break. It held the Flames to a 27.6 percent shooting clip and forced eight turnovers.
The Commodores started the second half on an 8-0 run to find themselves up 39-22 less than four minutes into the third quarter. De’Mauri Flournoy drained a 3-pointer – her first of the season – a few minutes later to put the Dores up 43-24.
Cambridge’s swift pass to Washington led to an easy layup giving Vandy a 20-point lead and then a Cambridge layup put the Dores up 49-27. Vanderbilt took a 51-29 lead into the final 10 minutes, plenty of cushion to cruise into the next round of the WNIT.
“Really just staying locked-in at all times and trying to win every possession defensively so we could get right into our offense,” Washington said of the defensive dominance. “I think we locked in really well in both halves because we know sometimes we don’t come out as strong, but today we came out really strong in both halves.”
- Vanderbilt, now 2-0 in the WNIT, last won two postseason games in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. It last won three postseason games in the 2002 NCAA Tournament.
- Monday’s game was the latest into the month of March for Vanderbilt since playing March 22, 2014, in the NCAA Tournament.
- Vanderbilt’s 12 homes wins this season is its most since the 2013-14 campaign.
- Vandy is now 3-0 all-time against Liberty.
- The previous low shooting percentage by a Vanderbilt opponent this season was 28.4 percent by Arkansas on Jan. 6.
- Cambridge is eighth in Vanderbilt history with 231 career steals. Jackie Cowan is seventh with 235.
- Moore now has 77 made 3-pointers this season, the 10th-most in Vanderbilt history. Christina Wirth is ninth with 80.
- Ralph (16) now has the second-most wins in an inaugural coaching season at Vanderbilt. Jim Foster and Melanie Balcomb each won 22 in their respective first campaigns.
- Attendance on Monday as announced as 1,215.
Lady Flames … Extinguished by Vanderbilt Athletics on on Exposure
