ATHENS, Ga. — Vanderbilt had four players in double figures and fought back from a late, eight-point deficit Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum, but couldn’t find the winning buckets in a 73-70 loss to Georgia.
Dylan Disu led the Commodores with 15 points and six rebounds while Scotty Pippen Jr. had 12 points and five assists. Jordan Wright also had 12. Max Evans finished with 10.
Georgia shot 58.7 percent from the floor and 46.7 percent from distance.
Georgia closed the game after having extended a four-point lead to 68-62 with three minutes to play. Back-to-back 3s from Trey Thomas and Evans, respectively tied the game at 68-68 with 97 seconds on the clock.
Pippen Jr. then found his way through the lane with 44 seconds to go for a spinning layup knotting the score at 70-70. Georgia was able to make three free throws over the final 15 seconds to escape with the victory.
Vanderbilt returns to Memorial Gymnasium this week to host Auburn (10-10, 4-7 SEC) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Vandy (5-9, 1-7 SEC) started Saturday’s game by making four of its first five shots en route to an 8-4 lead. Five minutes into the contest, a Wright steal and layup put the Dores up 12-7.
Georgia answered with seven in a row to retake the lead with an Andrew Garcia layup at 14-12. Three straight 3s, however, by DJ Harvey, Thomas and Evans, respectively, put Vanderbilt back in front 22-18.
The 3-ball kept the Dores rolling in the first half – their fifth triple of the first half came out of the hands of Issac McBride and put Vandy up 33-30. But Georgia went on an 11-0 run right after that building a 41-33 margin.
Vanderbilt trailed 44-37 at the break.
Both teams continued to shoot it well into the second half by combining for a 7 of 14 clips in the first five minutes. An Evans 3 tied the game at 50-50 before Savhir Wheeler’s layup made it 52-50.
After getting down six at one point, Disu scored nine in a row at one point to help get Vandy back even at 59-all. Georgia edged back out to a 66-62 lead and that set up the final 3 1/2 minutes of the contest.
Wheeler led Georgia (11-6, 4-6 SEC) with 16 points.
• Pippen, Disu, Evans, Wright and Ejike Obinna started Saturday’s game for Vanderbilt.
• Pippen is the only Commodore to have started all 14 games for Vandy this season.
• Pippen Jr. had scored at least 15 points in 11 straight games before scoring 12 on Saturday.
• Vanderbilt has now made at least four 3s in 29 consecutive games.
• The Commodores are now 92-55 in the all-time series against Georgia and 31-37 at UGA.
• Vandy last won at Georgia on Jan. 29, 2014.
