BATON ROUGE, La. — AJ Hoggard scored 12 of his team-high 17 points in the final six-and-a-half minutes Saturday to help lift Vanderbilt to an 80-72 SEC men’s basketball victory over LSU at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
With the Commodores (13-1, 1-0 SEC) trailing by one point, the graduate student hit the first of two free throws and then drained a 3-point field goal after an offensive rebound to give Vandy the lead for good. Hoggard would go on to make another 3-pointer as well as a long jumper to extend the advantage to seven, then completed a 3-point play with two minutes to go before finding MJ Collins Jr. for the Dores’ final field goal of the day.
Jaylen Carey supplied 14 points and eight rebounds while Collins also scored 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, with Jason Edwards contributing 12 points in 18 minutes and Tyler Nickel adding 11. Devin McGlockton grabbed 10 rebounds as well to help Vanderbilt finish with a 37-27 rebounding advantage in the game.
Cam Carter led the Tigers (11-3, 0-1 SEC) with 22 points, who also got 17 points from Jordan Sears and 12 from Corey Chest.
LSU shot 50 percent from the field overall and were 19-of-23 at the free-throw line, but the Commodores turned 15 turnovers in 18 points on the other end of the floor.
Vandy returns home to take on No. 17 Mississippi State Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Memorial Gymnasium. The game can be seen on ESPNU.
