BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Number-20 ranked Seton Hall outscored the Commodores 41 to 27 in the second half to come away with a 72-59 victory over Vanderbilt in the third-place game of the NIT Season Tip-Off at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Vanderbilt led 32-31 at the break, but the Pirates clamped down on the defensive end of the floor in the second half, beginning the half on an 11-2 run and now allowing a Commodore second-half field goal until the 11:45 mark with Ejike Obinna put home a two-handed slam.
Senior forward Jeff Roberson led the Commodores with 20 points and 13 rebounds, while freshman Ejike Obinna scored a career-high nine points. The double-double was Roberson’s fourth of the season.
Seton Hall was led by Desi Rodriguez, who scored 27 points in the win for the Pirates.
“I think the biggest thing is that we didn’t make shots, we were 0-12 from three in the second half,” said Vanderbilt head coach Bryce Drew. “If I could go back and write that over, I would take those shots all day. We still had the lead going into half and I thought we were getting good shots. They came out, hit a couple of baskets to start second half. We did a really good job in the first half; in second half we didn’t come out with same intensity and didn’t really recover as far as making shots.”
The Commodores return to action on Tuesday night when they welcome Radford to Memorial Gym for a 7 p.m. CT tip. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
