OXFORD, Miss. — Playing its third road game in five days, Vanderbilt couldn’t muster enough to overcome Ole Miss on Saturday in a 56-46 loss at the Pavilion at Ole Miss.
The Commodores went 1-2 during its long and winding road trip that stretched from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and to Oxford, Mississippi. Saturday’s result marked the end of the regular season for head coach Jerry Stackhouse’s team which now looks ahead to the postseason.
Vandy ended the campaign at 8-15 overall and 3-13 in league play. It will now face Texas A&M (8-9) to begin the SEC Tournament at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena.
On Saturday, Vanderbilt turned the ball over 16 times against Ole Miss’ 1-3-1 halfcourt-trapping defense. It also shot just 27.3 percent from 3 and 36.6 percent overall.
Issac McBride scored a career-high 16 to lead Vandy while Jordan Wright added 11. One game after a career-high 36 points Thursday, sophomore point guard Scotty Pippen Jr. was held to seven points.
All that after the Commodores had taken an early 10-3 lead on the strength of a Pippen 3 through a double team on the left wing. The Dores also got to the free throw line six times in the first five minutes.
Ole Miss came back to take a 13-12 lead after Luis Rodriguez converted a three-point play. Rodriguez’s layup a couple minutes later gave the Rebels a 16-12 advantage.
Vandy went more than 3 1/2 minutes without scoring, yet found itself tied at 16-all thanks to Quentin Millora-Brown’s baseline hook with 7:50 to go in the first half.
The Rebels then went on a 7-0 run from that point and never looked back. Sammy Hunter’s jumper after an offensive rebound put Ole Miss up 27-18 as the clock went under two minutes to play in the opening half.
Jarkel Joiner buried a triple at the halftime buzzer making it 34-22 as the two teams went into their respective locker rooms. Vandy shot just 2 of 9 from 3, had six turnovers and six assists and was out-rebounded 17-9.
Vanderbilt turned the ball over four times in four minutes to start the second half and Ole Miss took advantage to the tune of a 38-24 lead, forcing a Vandy timeout after back-to-back, crowd-pleasing dunks.
Joiner’s baseline jumper with a little less than 14 minutes to play put the Rebels up 43-24. Matthew Murrell connected on a triple two minutes later pushing the margin to 46-24.
The Commodores, meanwhile, scored just two points in the first 9 1/2 minutes of the second half and had nothing left in the tank for a comeback.
Joiner led the way for the Rebels (15-10, 10-8) with 12 points. The Rebels avenged a 75-70 loss to Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium on Feb. 27.
• Pippen, Maxwell Evans, Wright, Clevon Brown and Millora-Brown started Thursday’s game for Vanderbilt. That marked the 17th different starting lineup for the Commodores in 2020-21.
• Wright scored in double figures for the fifth consecutive game.
• Vanderbilt has now made at least four 3s in 38 consecutive games.
• Vandy is now 0-13 this season when trailing at halftime.
• Vanderbilt is now 77-48 all-time against Ole Miss.
• The Commodores completed three true road games in a single week for the first time since 1995 and the first time the program had played three road games in a row since 2000.
