NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt made eight 3s on Saturday at Memorial Gymnasium and that proved to be the difference in a 59-50 win over Radford.
The Commodores fell short in nearly every major statistical category, yet sank enough long-range shots to get back in the win column after the season’s first loss earlier in the week. Radford, which had a better shooting percentage, more bench points, more second chance points, more rebounds and more points in the paint, made just one triple out of nine attempts.
Scotty Pippen Jr. led the way for the Commodores with 25 points and seven assists while Dylan Disu had 12.
Vanderbilt will now take its first road trip of the season as it heads to North Carolina to face Davidson (4-3) at 6 p.m. CT Tuesday.
Vanderbilt couldn’t take advantage of five early Radford turnovers Saturday and found itself down 11-7 after a Chyree Walker 3 from the top of the key. Xavier Lipscomb’s layup with 11:55 to go in the half made it 17-10.
The Commodores continued to fight through poor shooting over the first 20 minutes and eventually took a 22-21 lead on a Disu 3 with 3:40 left in the half. Three more lead changes occurred after that until Pippen’s layup at the 1:24 mark made it 26-25.
That’s how the score would look at the break. Vandy shot 34.4 percent from the field and 3 of 16 from long range while Radford outscored the Dores 20-12 in the paint.
Pippen led Vanderbilt on a tear out of the break. His seven straight points fueled a 9-0 run that put the home team ahead 35-25 less than 2 1/2 minutes into the half.
DJ Harvey joined the fun with a 3 from left of center to put Vandy up 43-31. But the Commodores went a bit cold from there and suffered through a 5:42 stretch without a made field goal.
Radford closed within 47-44 with 6:39 left, but a Tyrin Lawrence layup on the fast break with 4:48 to play broke the Vandy drought from the field to make it 50-44.
Pippen’s third 3 of the evening gave the Dores a 55-48 lead and that proved to be the dagger.
Walker paced the Highlanders (3-5) with 15 points and six rebounds.
Mazerei Coaches Commodores on Saturday
On Sunday, George Wallace Stackhouse died in Kinston, North Carolina. He was 90 years old.
He was Jerry Stackhouse’s father.
“All of who I am is a lot of who he is,” the Vanderbilt head coach said earlier this week. “He’s a hard worker, he’s a guy that loved his family, loved his church, loved God and I’m going to miss the hell out of him.
“What I got from my dad is always, ‘A man got to do what a man got to do.’ That’s one of his favorite sayings and I just felt like I needed to be here (Wednesday) and take care of my business.”
Stackhouse coached the Commodores during Wednesday’s game against Richmond. He was not present when Vandy played host to Radford at Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday evening and assistant coach Adam Mazarei was the team’s acting head coach.
George Stackhouse, born in 1930, will be laid to rest Friday and his son returned home this weekend to be with the family and friends who had so much love for the elder Stackhouse. The Vandy coach said in recent days he has heard so many stories – stories he never knew – about the type of many his father was and how he impacted so many people.
“I’m going to be strong for him and be strong for my mom and try to see my family through this,” Stackhouse said.
• Freshman forward Myles Stute was unavailable to play Saturday.
• Tyrin Lawrence, Dylan Disu, Scotty Pippen, Maxwell Evans and Quentin Millora-Brown started Saturday’s game for the Commodores.
• Pippen started the season 24-for-24 from the line until missing his first attempt Saturday night.
• Vanderbilt senior Clevon Brown now has 116 career blocks, tied with Julian Terrell for the sixth-most in a Vanderbilt career. A.J. Ogilvy is fifth with 145.
• Vanderbilt has now made at least four 3s in 19 consecutive games.
• The Commodores are now 2-0 all-time against Radford and 14-0 against programs out of the Big South Conference.
