Nov. 21, 2015
GREEN BAY – The Vanderbilt women went from red hot to ice cold in a matter of minutes on Saturday against Green Bay. And a potential victory slipped away from the Commodores in the process.
After making 9-of-11 shots from the floor in the third quarter and building an eight-point lead, Vanderbilt went more than nine minutes without a field goal in the fourth quarter and suffered a stinging 58-56 loss to Green Bay.
Vanderbilt owned a 54-45 lead early in the fourth quarter after Rayte’a Long went 1-of-2 at the foul line with 7:27 to go. But Green Bay (2-0) put together a 13-0 run over the next seven minutes to grab a 58-54 lead with less than a minute to play.
The Commodores’ lone field goal of the quarter came on a layup by Minta Spears with 16 seconds to play, which trimmed Green Bay’s lead to 58-56. After Spears’ basket, the Commodores (1-2) forced a turnover with 10 seconds remaining, but Vanderbilt came up empty on its final possession.
Vanderbilt’s Rachel Bell finished with a team-high 13 points and Jasmine Jenkins and Christa Reed added 11 points each. Long had a career-high 10 points and nine rebounds for the Commodores, who were coming off an 81-56 loss at Dayton on Wednesday.
Vanderbilt trailed 13-7 at the end of the first quarter, and was down 22-9 early in the second quarter. But the Commodores put together a 12-0 run to get back into the game and outscored Green Bay 24-15 in the quarter to build a 31-28 halftime lead.
“We’ve come a long way since Wednesday night,” said head coach Melanie Balcomb. “(But) we started really slow tonight, and that’s something we need to work on. We spent a lot of energy making that comeback in the second quarter.”
Green Bay junior Tesha Buck finished with a game-high 16 points. Allie LeClaire added 11 and Sam Terry had 10.
Vanderbilt shot 63 percent from the floor in the first half, buoyed by the 9-of-11 effort in the second quarter. The hot shooting enabled the Commodores to build their three-point halftime lead, and VU extended the lead by outscoring Green Bay 22-17 in the third. But the Commodores’ offense stalled in the fourth quarter and Green Bay was able to reverse the game’s momentum.
Vanderbilt must now bounce back quickly. The Commodores host Presbyterian on Monday at 11:30 a.m. on Education Day at Memorial Gym.
