NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt women’s basketball team rolled to a 94-40 victory over Appalachian State Sunday afternoon at Memorial Gymnasium.
The Commodores outscored the Mountaineers 33-2 in the first quarter and never looked back. Vanderbilt posted its fourth 50-plus point win of the season to improve to 8-1, while App State fell to 3-4.
The two points allowed by the Dores in the opening stanza were the fewest that Vanderbilt has allowed in any quarter in school history. The previous record was three points, which happened twice, once against Fordham on Dec. 30, 2015, and then again vs. Rutgers on Nov. 26, 2021, with both taking place in the second quarter. The NCAA switched from two halves to four quarters before the 2015-16 season.
Vanderbilt scored over 90 points in a game for the fifth time this season. A total of five players registered double-digit points against App State, as every Commodore that played on Sunday scored.
Freshman Mikayla Blakes led the charge with a 20-point performance. It is the fifth game this season that the guard has registered 20-plus points in a game. Blakes added a career-high seven steals and dished out six assists against the Mountaineers. She remains the only Commodore to score 10-plus points and collect multiple steals in each of their first nine games at Vandy.
Senior Iyana Moore posted double-digit points for the fourth time over her last five games with 13 points. Her 13-point performance put her over 1,000 points career scored at Vanderbilt. She has amassed 1,002 career points in 76 games, as Moore is the 42nd Commodore to join the school’s 1,000-point club.
Graduate student Jane Nwaba tallied 12 points, which marks the highest point total at Vanderbilt for the transfer. Sophomore Aiyana Mitchell made her first career start at Vanderbilt and matched career-best in points (10) and rebounds (6) in 20 minutes of action. Fellow sophomore Aga Makurat rounded out the group with a season-best 10 points.
Vanderbilt shot 42.9 percent from the field while holding Appalachian State to a 29.6 percent field goal percentage. The Commodores outrebounded the Mountaineers, 48-36, which led to a 21-7 edge in second-chance points. The Dores collected 21 turnovers on Sunday, which turned into 33 points. Vanderbilt has forced opponents into 20 or more turnovers in every game this season.
How It Happened
The Commodores opened the game on a 19-0 run and never relinquished their lead. The Dores led 33-2 at the end of the first quarter. The plus-31-point scoring margin is the largest point differential that Vanderbilt has had in any quarter in school history.
App State registered the first four points of the second quarter, but Vanderbilt answered with a 13-2 spurt to take a 38-point lead at 46-8 with 4:50 left to play before halftime. After the Mountaineers scored seven-straight points, Vanderbilt ended the second stanza by scoring the frame’s final five points to take a 51-15 advantage into the break.
Vandy built a 43-point lead in the third quarter, then closed the fourth quarter on a 23-4 run to claim the 54-point victory over Appalachian State.
Head Coach Shea Ralph on the Win
“I think it was a good response today from the highs and lows of the road trip that we were just on. We scheduled that trip because I felt like this team was ready for the challenges of traveling and playing a couple of games in a short amount of time against good competition. The goal is to learn as much as we can so that we can continue to improve.
“I feel like the team responded. We had two really tough practices after we got back from California. I felt like today we looked more like a team than we have in the past two or three games. We played from start to finish today. I’m really proud of the growth of this team. We had some different players come in and contribute. The way the season goes, you’re going to have players in and out of the lineup, and the beauty of having a really good team is that you don’t miss a beat. I felt like we did a good job of that today as well.”
Up Next
Vanderbilt takes to the road again Wednesday as the Commodores travel back to the Sunshine State to face Miami as part of the 2024 SEC/ACC Challenge. Tipoff from the Watsco Center is set for 4 p.m. CT, and streams live on ACC Network.
Dore Notes
- The Dores led App State 33-2 after the opening frame, marking the largest lead to open the game under Shea Ralph. The Commodore’s 33 points are the post in the first quarter this season
- Vandy’s plus-31-point margin after the first quarter is the largest scoring margin in program history since the NCAA switched to quarters during the 2015-16 season
- Today’s game marks the fourth time scoring 50-plus points in the opening two quarters
- Graduate Jane Nwaba posted a season-high 12 points, her first double-digit scoring performance in black and gold
- Nwaba returned to the starting five after two games coming off the bench
- Senior Iyana Moore scored her 1,000th career point with a 13-point performance vs. Appalachian State
- Moore is the 42nd Commodore to score 1,000 career points at Vanderbilt
- It is Moore’s sixth game this year with 10-plus points (49th career)
- Freshman Mikayla Blakes posted another double-digit game to extend her streak to all nine games scoring in double figures, the first Dore to reach the threshold to begin her Vandy career since at least 2009-10
- Blakes finished with 20 points, the fifth game this year with 20-plus, off 7-of-15 from the field and 2-of-8 from range to extend her streak to nine consecutive games with at least one three
- The Dores made a season-best 13 3-point field goals
- The offense dished 23 assists, tying the season-high mark
- The Commodores shot a perfect 15-of-15 from the free throw line, the first time hitting 100 percent this season
- Dating back to the 1999-2000 season, it’s the first time on record that Vandy has shot 100 percent from the free throw line while making at least 15 free throws
- It’s the first time Vanderbilt went perfect from the stripe with 10 or more makes since going 10-of-10 at Mississippi State last season
- Vanderbilt committed just six turnovers, the least by the Dores this season
- Vanderbilt is 30-3 at Memorial Gym vs. nonconference foes under Shea Ralph. The Commodores have won 17 straight home games against nonconference teams, a streak that dates back to the 2022-23 campaign. In total, Vandy is 41-13 against non-SEC schools in the Ralph era
- The Commodores have won seven straight home games dating back to last season
- Today marks the third time this season that every Commodore who saw action scored
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