NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt got 24 points from Rodney Chatman on Saturday to hold off hard-charging No. 25 LSU for a 75-66 victory in Memorial Gymnasium.
Chatman paced three Commodores in double figures, and his late 3-pointer helped stymie the Tigers’ comeback effort.
Vanderbilt (12-10, 4-6 SEC) had led by as many as 21 in the second half before the visitors made a massive scoring run to get to 69-64 with a little less than five minutes to play. Then Chatman splashed his sixth triple of the game with 3:27 to play, making it a 73-64 game.
Myles Stute added 17 for Vandy, and Jordan Wright—a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native—finished with 13. The Commodores hit 13 3-pointers and tallied 18 assists.
Vandy will play host to Missouri (9-13, 3-6 SEC) at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Trailing 8-4 early Saturday, Vanderbilt went on a 12-3 run capped by a Pippen steal and slam that gave the home team a 16-11 advantage. Two minutes later, Shane Dezonie’s quick pass inside to Jamaine Mann led to an easy layup and a 19-13 Vandy lead.
Chatman made it a 26-15 game with a layup and then a 3-pointer from the top of the key on consecutive possessions. The senior hit a long triple moments later to put the Commodores ahead 29-17 and then a third 3, this one from the right corner, making it 32-19.
Stute joined the fun with a long 3-pointer to make it a 38-21 game, and shortly thereafter his putback amid three LSU defenders gave the Commodores a 43-23 advantage.
Vandy would settle for a 43-25 lead at the break. The Dores shot 48.6 percent from the floor, forced nine LSU turnovers and had 12 assists on 17 made baskets. Chatman finished with 16 points in 17 minutes.
The Tigers began to chip away at the deficit early in the second and got it to 51-38 on Eric Gaines’ three-point play at the 16:53 mark. A pair of Stute 3s, however, pushed the margin back out to 15 at 58-43.
Wright made Vandy’s 12th triple of the night just after the clock ticked past the 11-minute mark; that gave the home team a 65-46 lead. An uncontested layup for Chatman made it a 69-48 game and forced an LSU timeout.
The Tigers got off the mat and put together a 16-0 run to get within five at the 4:47 mark—69-64. Vandy went more than five minutes without a point during that stretch, but Chatman came to the rescue.
Tari Eason led the Tigers (16-7, 4-6 SEC) with 16.
- Vanderbilt retired Shan Foster’s jersey during halftime of Saturday’s contest. Foster became the fifth Vanderbilt basketball player – third from the men’s program – to have his uniform hung from the Memorial Gymnasium rafters.
- Chatman finished two points shy of matching his career high of 26 points scored in 2018.
- Scotty Pippen Jr. (1,253) passed Brad Tinsley (1,252) for 31st on Vanderbilt’s all-time scoring list and is now tied with Jermaine Beal (1,253) for 30th. Jeff Turner (1,271) is 29th.
- Wright has started 36 straight games for Vanderbilt.
- Trey Thomas has played in 46 straight games for the Commodores.
- Vandy has now forced 15 or more turnovers in 11 games this season.
- The Commodores are now 64-56 all-time against LSU and 39-14 as the home team in the series.
- Vanderbilt’s last win over a ranked opponent was a 99-90 victory over LSU on Feb. 5, 2020.
- Attendance on Saturday was announced as 7,381.
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