NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Back in August, Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings warned his team about the third game of the season.
He was right.
The 17th-ranked Commodores needed a late rally to beat unheralded Stony Brook 79-72 in overtime on Thursday night.
”In our first team meeting in August I told them that we had a game the night before we left for Maui that they didn’t have any idea how difficult it was going to be,” said Stallings, whose team next plays in the Maui Invitational in Hawaii. ”Well, they found out. So I knew, they didn’t.”
A bruised back kept Wade Baldwin IV out of the starting lineup for the first time in 22 games, but he still led the Commodores (3-0) with 21 points off the bench.
Baldwin also gave teammate Damian Jones a pep talk during a timeout late in the game. He told Jones he was the best player on the floor and he needed to start acting like it.
Jones bounced back from a slow start with 13 points and six rebounds.
”There have been too many upsets in college basketball right now and we didn’t want to be the other upset, so we had to give it our all,” Baldwin said. ”And they were playing an incredible game against us.”
Vanderbilt (3-0) outscored Stony Brook 13-6 in overtime, as the Commodores hit 9 of 10 from the foul line.
Stony Brook’s Carson Puriefoy made a layup with one second left in regulation to send the game into overtime tied at 66. He finished with 16 points for the Seawolves (1-1).
Vanderbilt’s Riley LaChance had 13 points and Matthew Fisher-Davis scored 11.
Commodores forward Luke Kornet, who missed the last 22 minutes of Monday’s win over Gardner-Webb with a sprained ankle, scored nine.
”I thought the crowd affected us down the stretch with a couple last-second clock violations, but it was a good college basketball game,” Seawolves coach Steve Pikiell said. ”You’ve got to make 3s and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Stony Brook went 4 of 17 from beyond the arc and Vanderbilt wasn’t much better at 5 of 18.
Jameel Warney, a two-time America East player of the year, led the Seawolves with 22 points and 11 rebounds. He led the nation in double-doubles (24) and total rebounds (409) last season.
Warney, a 6-foot-8 forward, and Jones, a 7-foot center, are both NBA prospects.
”I thought he was really good,” Warney said. ”I felt like I played him to the best of my abilities and he got some easy shots I guess because of the height difference, but he played a great game and I felt like I played a pretty good game. So it was an even matchup.”
Stony Brook’s Ahmad Walker added 13 points and Lucas Woodhouse grabbed 11 rebounds.
After trailing by as many as 10 in the second half, LaChance’s 3-pointer tied the score at 62 for Vanderbilt with 2:16 left in regulation.
Stony Brook tied it at 64 on Warney’s jumper with 1:21 remaining in regulation and a layup by Jones gave Vanderbilt a 66-64 lead with 1:01 left. But Puriefoy’s layup tied it and led to the overtime.
Stony Brook made seven of its first 12 shots to take a 19-9 lead on Puriefoy’s jumper with 12:40 left in the first half.
It was the opposite of the Commodores’ first two games when they started with big leads in wins over Austin Peay and Gardner-Webb.
TIP-INS
Stony Brook: The Seawolves fell to 1-10 against ranked teams. They upset No. 13 Washington 62-57 last December. They outrebounded the Commodores 43-34, impressive considering Vanderbilt’s roster includes three 7-footers.
Vanderbilt: Stallings had nothing but praise for Stony Brook. ”They have good players and that guy (Pikiell) is one heck of a coach. It didn’t take me long watching them on film to see that team is really well-coached.”
SENSE OF RELIEF
”We were outplayed for the better part of 35 minutes,” Stallings said. ”Fortunately, in the last four minutes our guys dug in. We had some big shots, we had some big stops. And thank goodness Luke Kornet was able to play. His shooting numbers were abysmal, but he does so much for our defense.”
UP NEXT
Stony Brook visits Western Kentucky on Saturday.
Vanderbilt faces St. John’s in the Maui Invitational on Monday.
