Dec. 30, 2010
BLACKSBURG, Va. – Vanderbilt appeared to be well on its way to winning the championship of the Hilton Garden Classic on Thursday night as Vanderbilt led Virginia Tech by as many as 17 points in the first half and held a 15-point lead at intermission. However, the Hokies rode a 31-8 run to open the second half en route to a 74-68 win at Cassell Coliseum.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak and dropped Vanderiblt to 9-4 overall as the Commodores concluded non-conference play 1-4 on the road. Virginia Tech improved to 9-4 and won their home tournament for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons.
“They came out after halftime and took it to another level and we didn’t respond,” Head Coach Melanie Balcomb said. “We didn’t come into the second half ready to play at all.
“I think we learned a good lesson tonight for our young players that you have to play for 40 minutes. We are a very young team and we showed our youth tonight.”
The Commodores were bidding for its first tournament championship away from Nashville since 2003, but they could not withstand the hot shooting by the Hokies in the second half, who made 55.9 percent of their attempts after hitting just 28.1 percent of their shots in the opening frame.
Vanderbilt made 37.3 percent of its shots, but went cold from beyond the arc, hitting just 25.0 percent of its threes, including 15.4 percent (2-of-13) in the second half.
Vanderbilt dug an early 8-2 hole in the game, but just like against the Blue Hens when Vanderbilt used a 21-0 first-half run to take a commanding lead, Vanderbilt would go on voluminous 26-3 run against Virginia Tech to take a 28-11 lead with 2:55 to play in the first half.
Virginia Tech came out firing in the second half and took a 43-42 lead with 13:17 to play. It was its first lead since holding an 8-7 advantage with 12:33 to play in the first half. The Commodores would pull within two, 61-59,with 3:40 to play, but would not lead again.
Senior Jence Rhoads tried to will Vanderbilt to victory with 20 points and five assists. Rhoads scored Vanderbilt’s first eight points of the game. Vanderbilt also had double-doubles from Hannah Tuomi and Stephanie Holzer. It was the second time this season two Commodores have posted double-doubles in the same game. Christina Foggie added 11 points.
Rhoads and Tuomi were named to the All-Tournament team.
Thursday’s game concluded non-conference play for Vanderbilt. Up next, the Commodores will open SEC play at Ole Miss at 2 p.m. CT on Sunday.
