NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Career nights from junior Jordan Wright and sophomore Tyrin Lawrence launched the Vanderbilt men’s basketball team past Winthrop 77-63 on Saturday night at Memorial Gymnasium.
Wright started the game 7-for-7 from the floor and finished with a career-best 28 points while Lawrence tallied a career-best 20 against the defending Big South champions who finished 26-2 last season.
Vanderbilt improved to 3-1 with the victory and will hit the road for the first time with a trip to the Steel City to take on Pittsburgh at 8 p.m. CT on Wednesday.
With the game tied at 43-43 with 14:38 remaining, Vanderbilt scored the next 13 points—eight of which came from Lawrence—for a 56-43 advantage with a little over 11 minutes left.
Winthrop (2-2) was never within 10 after that as the Commodores led by as many as 18 down the stretch.
“He was great,” Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse said of Lawrence. “His confidence, he’s a great kid. I’m glad to see him have a night like that, because he has battled back from having that ACL injury. Just being on the sideline, the work that it takes, the commitment that it takes to get back on the floor, and he’s getting back downhill. He’s making highlight plays at the rim.”
In the first half, both teams started out hot and traded buckets for much of the first half. Wright carried the Commodores with his perfect 7-for-7 start including 3-for-3 from 3-point range and a season-high 18 points by halftime.
It was 26-26 when the Commodores went on a 7-0 run in 66 seconds behind a Wright 3 and layups from Pippen and Lawrence. The Dores held that lead into the break 35-32.
Junior guard Scotty Pippen Jr. finished with 13 points, four rebounds and two assists as Vanderbilt shot 49.2 percent from the field.
Wright and Quentin Millora-Brown each finished with a team-high six rebounds while sophomore Myles Stute led the team with a career-best four steals and Trey Thomas dished a team-best three assists.
Millora-Brown also added eight points on 4-of-4 shooting.
• Pippen is now 93 points from reaching 1,000 for his career.
• Wright has scored in double figures in all four games this season and nine straight regular season games dating back to to last season.
• Wright has started 19 straight games for Vanderbilt.
• Wright set a career high with five made 3s (previously made three on two occasions last season).
• Lawrence was in double figures for the second time in his career. The other occasion came in his college debut—14 points against Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 13, 2020.
• Vanderbilt is 15-0 all-time against the Big South.
• Vanderbilt has won five of its last six home nonconference games.
• Thomas has played 29 straight games for the Commodores.
• Vanderbilt has now made at least two 3s in 44 straight games.
• Attendance was announced as 5,179.
