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MBB plays UGA for 2nd time this season Tuesday

Jan. 26, 2015

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The Vanderbilt men’s basketball team will be on the road for two games this week, with the first stop coming in Athens, Ga., to face the Georgia Bulldogs Tuesday night at 6 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on the SEC Network, and can be heard on the Vanderbilt IMG College Radio Network throughout Middle Tennessee.

The Commodores dropped their last time out in an overtime decision to LSU Saturday at Memorial Gym, 79-75. Sophomore Luke Kornet scored a team-high 22 points to lead the Vanderbilt scoring attack, with freshman Wade Baldwin IV tallying a career-high 18 points and sophomore Damian Jones chipping in 13 points.

Game 20/Vanderbilt (11-8, 1-5 SEC) vs. Georgia (13-5, 4-2 SEC)
Athens, Ga. – Stegeman Coliseum – 6 p.m. CT
TV: SEC Network
TV Talent: Dave Neal (pxp), Darrin Horn (analyst)
Radio: Vanderbilt Radio Network from IMG College, vucommodores.com
Radio Talent: Joe Fisher (pxp), Tim Thompson (analyst)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 84, XM 84
Live Stats: vucommodores.com
Twitter Updates: @VandyMBB

Series Information
Series Record: Vanderbilt leads, 88-50.
Last Meeting: UGA win, 70-67, on Jan. 14, 2015.
Record at Vanderbilt: VU leads, 54-14.
Record at UGA: UGA leads, 33-29.
Record at Neutral Site: VU leads, 5-3
Coach Stallings vs. UGA: Coach Stallings is 20-11 vs. Georgia.

About Georgia
Georgia enters the game with a 13-5 overall record and an 4-2 mark in SEC play, and have won four straight games.

Marcus Thornton leads four players in double figures with 13.4 points per game. Charles Mann (11.4), Kenny Gaines (11.8), Nemanja Djurisic (10.7), and J.J. Frazier (10.7) also average double figures.

Georgia snapped a nine-game losing streak to Vanderbilt earlier this season on January 14 when the Bulldogs won a 70-67 contest at Memorial Gym. The Commodores have three consecutive games at Stegeman Coliseum entering Tuesday’s contest.

Vanderbilt will face Georgia twice this season, with their next meeting with the Bulldogs set for Jan. 27 in Athens. VU will play the Bulldogs, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Florida, and Alabama twice this season.

LaChance leads all SEC Freshmen
Freshman Riley LaChance is the leading freshman scorer in the SEC at 13.3 points per game in all games and also in league games only (13.3). He is tied for first among SEC freshmen in three’s made per contest at 2.0 per game, which is fourth in the conference overall. He is also fourth in the SEC overall in 3-point field goal percentage (.404). He won his second SEC Freshman of the Week award after averaging 16.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in wins over St. Louis and Yale. Earlier this year, he poured in a career-high 26 points in Vanderbilt’s win over Purdue on December 13 and then followed with another 26-point game against Western Carolina. It was the most points scored by a Commodore freshman since A.J. Ogilvy scored 27 points on March 13, 2008, in a first-round game of the SEC Tournament in Atlanta, and the first time a Commodore has scored 25 or more points in consecutive games since John Jenkins scored 26 at Ole Miss (2/16/12) and 28 at Georgia (2/19/12).

Freshmen Leaders
Riley LaChance leads all SEC freshmen in scoring at 13.3 ppg, while Wade Baldwin IV leads all freshmen in assists with 4.3 per contest. Shelton Mitchell is second among freshmen in assists with 4.1 per game.

Damian Jones leads Commodores
Sophomore post player Damian Jones is having a stellar sophomore campaign, averaging 15.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game in the first 19 contests. Jones, a preseason All-SEC First Team selection by the league’s coaches, has scored 20+ points in five games this year and is second in the SEC in field goal percentage (.547), sixth in the SEC in scoring, seventh in rebounding, 6th in blocks (1.8), and 7th in defensive rebounding (4.6/game).

Freshmen On Single-Season Lists
Baldwin IV and Mitchell are tied for eighth on the Vanderbilt single-season list for freshman. Baldwin has 82 and Mitchell 78. Atiba Prater has the all-time freshman single-season assist record with 103 in 1997. LaChance would be seventh on the freshman single-season scoring average list. Mike Rhodes is VU’s single-season freshman scoring average leader with 18.8 ppg, which came in the 1977-78 campaign.

Stallings wins 300 vs. Penn, now has 303 Vanderbilt wins
Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings won his 300th game at Vanderbilt against Penn, becoming one of five SEC coaches to win 300 or more games at one institution, joining Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp, Florida’s Billy Donovan, and LSU’s Dale Brown and Harry Rabenhorst.

Vanderbilt among SEC leaders
The Commodores lead the SEC in FG% with 48.0%, and have shot 50% or better in eight games this year. VU is also 2nd in 3-Pt FG% (.372) and 4th in assists (15.3).

Dores 2015 Recruiting Class Ranked 20th by ESPN
Head Coach Kevin Stallings recently signed four players to National Letters of Intent for next season – Djery Baptiste, a 6’11 center from Plano, Texas, Camron Justice, a 6’2 guard from Hindman, Kentucky, Samir Sehic, a 6’9 forward from Cypress, Texas, and Joseph Toye, a 6’7 wing from Chicago, each signed with the Commodores on the first day of the signing period on November 12. The quartet was recently named the 20th-best class in the nation according to ESPN.com.

SEC’s Youngest Backcourt
The Commodores’ freshman backcourt is the youngest in the SEC. In fact, Vanderbilt is the only school in the league to start three freshmen at the three guard spots.

Young Commodores
According to KenPom.com, Vanderbilt is number 348 out of 351 Division I playing schools in terms of experience at 0.72 years. The average years of experience across the 351 schools is 1.67 years.

Three-Point Streak Still Intact
Vanderbilt has made a 3-pointer in 915 consecutive games, a streak which began at the inception of the 3-point line in 1986-87. The Commodores rank second only to UNLV for the longest streak in Division I basketball. Vanderbilt, UNLV and Princeton are the only three schools in college basketball to have made at least one 3-pointer in every game played since the 3-point line was implemented.

Frontcourt Height
Vanderbilt’s starting frontline of 7-0, 6-10 & 6-6 is the second tallest in the SEC in terms of average height. Kentucky – 82.3 inches; Vanderbilt – 81.3 inches; LSU – 81.3 inches.

Commodores vs. the SEC
Vanderbilt has a 678-671 against the current members of the SEC.