Aug. 12, 2013
Dores win first game of tour, 75-59.
Game against French Division I all-stars ends a dynamic day for the Vanderbilt basketball team.
Day Two Photo Gallery | 
Game Highlights and Stallings Interview
Freshman Damian Jones scored 16 points and had six rebounds to lead four Commodore players in double figures in a 75-59 win over a group of French Division I All-Stars Monday evening in Loutraki, Greece. The game was the first game of Vanderbilt’s 10-day, four-game foreign tour to Greece and Italy.
Senior Rod Odom scored 15 points and led the team with eight rebounds, freshman Luke Kornet tallied 13 points, including three threes, and junior Josh Henderson added 11 points and seven rebounds in the Commodore win.
Vanderbilt led for nearly the whole contest, but the French team made it interesting in the third quarter, cutting the Commodore lead to four at 50-46. Jones then took over the game, spurring a 9-0 run with a blocked shot and a runout layup, and then a dunk on Vanderbilt’s ensuing possession.
The game was played at the Loutraki Sport Camp, about an hour and a half southwest of Athens. The two teams are expected to play again tomorrow in the city of Athens in a yet-to-be-determined site.
Vanderbilt staffers on the trip gathered statistics for the contest, and the following were the official numbers from the game.
Damian Jones – 16 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers
Rod Odom – 15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 turnovers
Luke Kornet – 13 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist
Josh Henderson – 11 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover
Kyle Fuller – 9 points, 5 assists
Dai-Jon Parker – 5 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists
Eric McClellan – 4 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 turnover
Shelby Moats – 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover
Carter Josephs – 2 assists
Nathan Watkins – 1 rebound
James Siakam did not play after spraining his ankle last week in practice. His status for tomorrow’s game will be a game time decision.
The game capped off an unbelievable day in Greece, with the team visiting the world famous Acropolis high above Athens.
Don’t think any words could do the place justice, so I’ll just post some photos below.
Some notes about the sightseeing and other things on Monday:
The Parthenon was built for the goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
Athena defeated Poseidon, the god of the sea, to take over Athens according to Greek lore. Poseidon with a blow of his trident on the middle of the Acropolis, produced a spring of salt water. Athena caused a olive tree to spring up. The olive tree was judged to be superior as it could be used three-fold as food, as oil and as timber. Other Greek gods voted Athena over Poseidon – and in his jest, Poseidon then flooded Athens.
The Parthenon and the structures at the Acropolis were first built in the fifth century BC, and were mostly destroyed by the Persians in a war with the Greeks in the late 5th century BC. They are currently fixing the Parthenon, or fixing the mistakes that were made in the early 20th century in the last fix up. According to Rob the Tour Guide, they have computers that can detect pieces of marble that are in the wrong place, and according to him, there are many. Also interesting that archaeologists can rebuild a column if it’s missing a small amount of the structure – say one in seven pieces – as long as they use marble from the original place. So, there are excavations going on all around the Acropolis to dig up the marble. Fascinating stuff.
The entire Parthenon is made of marble, as are all of the other structures at the Acropolis. There’s also marble on the steps around the complex, and it can get slick. That’s a lot of marble!
The team was quite popular with tourists visiting the Acropolis, and many posed with the guys throughout the day. You really don’t know how big these guys are until you get them in a public setting like this. It’s really interesting to see people’s reactions.
There’s a statue dedicated to the Greek character Icarus that we passed in Athens on our way to Parthenon. Don’t have any pictures of the statue, but I wanted to mention it because it’s a cool story. Icarus had wings made of wax and could fl that his dad, Daedalus, a prominent Athens craftsman, made for him. Daedalus had one caveat for his young son – do not to fly towards the sun. Being the curious man that he was, he defied his father and headed towards the sun. His wings melted, and he fell towards the sea face first and died. The statue is a depiction of his face first dive into the Icarian Sea with his wings behind him (Rob the Tour Guide jokingly says that all of the seas around Greece are named after gods/goddesses who died in the sea). Google the statue and story. It’s cool.
We also saw some older classical buildings with statues of Athena and Apollo, and also statues of Hippocrates and Socrates. It home for me, and for many others, that those guys actually walked these streets we were driving on. Not the same streets, but you understand what I’m saying.
We also visited the old Olympic Stadium and saw the Roman ruins. While we were at the Olympic Stadium, a stray dog (and there are many all around Greece!) took to Eric McClellan and started following him all around the area in front of the Stadium. There’s a picture below. The dogs are an interesting part of the trip to these sites…all are taken care of and well fed, but they are around everywhere. Shelby Moats even laid down with one of them as we were leaving the Acropolis.
The last thing I have tonight is a thought about baklava. Had a buddy text me in the day and tell me to eat some baklava for him. Funny thing is – I haven’t seen any yet! I asked Rob the Tour Guide about it, and he told me it was a touchy subject, but I’m going to mention it anyway. The Turks, according to legend, actually brought baklava to Greece when they conquered the country in the 15th century and made Greece a part of the Ottoman Empire, but Greeks claim baklava as their own. As do the Turks. Nonetheless, no matter who it belongs to, I plan on having some. Rob says there’s good baklava at Olympia, so we’ll give it a try then.
Until next time, Antio from Greece!
