Dec. 7, 2011
MARTIN, Tenn. — The No. 22/19 Vanderbilt women’s basketball team used an impressive first-half shooting performance and a career-high from Jasmine Lister to take a road win, 99-84, at UT Martin. The Commodores now stand 10-0, while the Skyhawks fall to 4-4.
Lister hit her first six field goals of the contest and finished with 7-11 shooting to score a career-high 30 points. She also hit all 10 free throws, grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists.
Christina Foggie added 20 points, her fifth-straight game with at least 20 points. She also matched her career-high with eight assists. Stephanie Holzer added 13 points and eight rebounds, while Kady Schrann scored 12 points.
UT Martin was led by 28 points from Jasmine Newsome, who was a perfect 12-12 from the foul line. She also had eight assists. Rickiesha Bryant added 18 points and seven rebounds, while Heather Butler scored 13 points.
The Commodores jumped out to a 54-33 halftime lead behind 19 points from Lister. She was a perfect 6-6 in the opening half, including 5-5 from beyond the three-point line. Foggie also poured in 13 in the opening frame. As a team, the Commodores shot 67.7% from the field and 81.8% from three in the first period.
The second half saw the Skyhawks put up a fight, as they outscored Vanderbilt, 51-45, in the period. Newsome led the charge, scoring 16 points and dishing out five assists in the closing half, while Bryant poured in eight. Vanderbilt used a balanced attack to maintain the lead, with Lister scoring 11, Schrann scoring eight and Foggie and Holzer each adding six.
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb was pleased her team showed poise through the second half run by UT Martin.
“I felt really good about coming out with a win.” Balcomb said. “There was a lot of offense in this game and we just out-shot them. They just kept coming after us, (UT Martin) is a very good basketball team.”
Lister and Holzer agreed with Balcomb’s sentiment.
“We gained a lot of confidence from this game,” Holzer explained. “It was a great crowd, there was a lot of energy in this building. It was a good game to prepare us off of our home court, in a different environment and see if we could keep doing the things we do.”
Lister thought one of the key plays came from the freshman Schrann.
“There was a time where they were making a run at us and Kady came back and got a steal,” Lister said. “That was clutch for us because we could have folded and let them make more shots. Her getting that steal and getting fouled (at the other end) was clutch for us.”
The 10-0 start for Vanderbilt ties for the best under Head Coach Melanie Balcomb and ties for the third-best in program history. The best start for a Vanderbilt team is 17-0 by the 1993 Final Four Team.
The Commodores break for final exams before their next game. Play resumes on Sunday, December 18, when they travel to Raleigh, N.C., to face NC State. Tipoff versus the Wolfpack is set for 1:00 p.m. CT.
