NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Visiting Tennessee controlled the second half Saturday inside Memorial Gymnasium and eased its way to a 66-45 victory over Vanderbilt.
The Commodores fell to 8-9 overall and 0-4 in the SEC. They also saw a streak of 1,080 straight games with at least one made 3 come to an end.
Vandy finished 0-for-25 From behind the 3-point line. The program was one of only three in Division I basketball coming into Saturday’s play to have made at least one 3 since the inception of the 3-point line in 1986.
Freshman Scotty Pippen scored 16 to lead Vanderbilt while junior Saben Lee finished with 14.
The Dores return home at 8 p.m. Wednesday to host Alabama (10-7, 3-2 SEC).
The two sides traded buckets in the early going before Tennessee edged ahead 21-13. Vandy missed 16 of its first 20 shots and went 5 1/2 minutes without a made field goal.
Pippen’s steal and fastbreak dunk woke up the home team a bit and back-to-back buckets from the freshman trimmed the deficit to 21-18. The Commodores would have to settle for a 21-20 score at the break after Tennessee went the final 6:29 of the half without a point.
Neither team hit a 3 in the first 20 minutes (0-for-16 combined) and Vandy totaled only two assists.
Tennessee started the second half on a 10-0 run to ballon the lead to 31-20 while the Dores suffered through a drought of 7:43 without a made field goal. The Volunteers then enjoyed a 37-23 lead on John Fulkerson’s two-handed, fast-break dunk with 14:48 to go.
Santiago Vescovi’s triple from the left corner – the first 3 by either side – gave Tennessee a 42-25 lead with 12 1/2 minutes to go and Uros Plavsic’s hook inside the lane upped the margin to 46-28 a few minutes later.
Vanderbilt couldn’t concoct a comeback from there.
The Commodores mustered only three assists and shot 23.5 percent from the floor. Tennessee got 21 points from Jordan Bowden and scored 42 points in the paint.
• Lee became the 49th member of Vanderbilt’s 1,000-point club. The junior now has 1,011 points for his career and is 47th on the program’s all-time scoring list after passing Alex Gordon (1,007) and Perry Wallace (1,010).
• Vanderbilt senior center Clevon Brown (knee) missed his eighth straight game due to injury.
• The Commodores now trail the all-time series with Tennessee 123-75 and are now 54-43 in games played at Vanderbilt.
• Attendance on Saturday was announced as 12,693 giving Vanderbilt a season average of 9,100 after 13 home games.
