Dec. 7, 2009
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VU Game Notes
The Vanderbilt Commodores, winners of four consecutive games, travels to Big 10 opponent Illinois Tuesday night at Assembly Hall. Tip off is set for 7:30 p.m. C.T. with the Big 10 Network televising the game. The action can also be heard live on the Vanderbilt-ISP Radio Network and vucommodores.com, with Joe Fisher and Tim Thompson courtside calling all of the action.
Vanderbilt won two games last week at home in the friendly confines of Memorial Gym against Missouri and DePaul, and moved back into the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 (T-#24) after the two victories. The Commodores were 24th in both polls prior to their trip to Hawaii for the EA Sports Maui Invitational, but dropped out after a 67-58 loss to Cincinnati to open the tournament.
Against DePaul, VU overcame a one-point halftime deficit (28-27), and outscored the Blue Demons 40-26 in the second half to come away with a 67-54 victory. Junior center A.J. Ogilvy capped a solid week for the Commodores with a 19-point, six-rebound effort against DePaul, which helped him garner SEC Player of the Week honors for the week. Against Missouri and DePaul, the 6’11 big man from Sydney, Australia, averaged 22.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, and was 24-for-27 (.889) from the free-throw line in the two games.
Ogilvy, who averages 14.0 points per game, is second on the team in scoring to sophomore forward Jeffery Taylor, who averages 15.4 points per game and once again had a solid performance against DePaul, when he scored 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting. Taylor also leads the team on the glass with 7.0 rebounds per contest.
This will be the ninth career meeting between the two schools, with Illinois holding a 5-3 advantage in the series, including a 69-63 win last season at Memorial Gym. This will be the third meeting between the two schools in Champaign, with the last coming on December 13, 1982, a game Illinois won 79-77 in double overtime. VU also met the Illini earlier that season in Alaska at the Great Alaska Shootout, beating Illinois, 58-47.
Illinois enters the game with a 6-2 overall record after their most recent win, an 84-77 triumph over Boise State on December 5 at Assembly Hall. The Fighting Illini are 5-0 this season at home.
Mike Davis leads five Illinois players in double figures with 13.6 points per game. Demetri McCarney adds 12.6 points, Brandon Paul chips in 12.3, Mike Tisdale averages 10.9, and D.J. Richardson pours in 10.6 points per contest. Davis is actually averaging a double-double with 10.1 rebounds per game to go along with his 13.6 point-per-game scoring average.