Feb. 6, 2011
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Vanderbilt has proven it can win at home time and time again this season, but the Commodores’ struggles have come on the road this season. Those struggles ended for at least one day on Super Bowl Sunday as Vanderbilt gutted out a double-overtime thriller, 103-97, over Florida at the O’Connell Center.
The win was Vanderbilt’s third in a row and just the team’s third this season on the road as the Commodores improved to 16-7 overall and 7-3 in the SEC. Florida fell to 14-11 overall and 4-7 in the SEC.
“I’m really proud of our mental toughness,” Head Coach Melanie Balcomb said. “We just kept talking about the Kentucky game and what we have done to fix our issues, which were mental and physical toughness and communication and check-out, and I believe that is what we did down the stretch to win this game.”
Five players scored in double figures for Vanderbilt, led by Tiffany Clarke and Stephanie Holzer, who each had 23 points. Clarke also added a career-high 13 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. Hannah Tuomi also added 20 points.
Vanderbilt opened up an 11-point lead at the half and unlike in previous road collapses, the Commodores did not let the Gators overwhelm them with a huge second-half run.
The Gators chipped away at Vanderbilt’s lead and tied the score at 83 with 20 seconds to play. Vanderbilt’s Jence Rhoads had an opportunity to win the game at the end of regulation, but her jumper rolled off the rim.
The win came in VU’s first double overtime game since Feb. 3, 2005 at Mississippi State — also a win.
After a back-and-fourth first overtime, Vanderbilt took charge of the game in the second overtime. The tide began the shift in VU’s favor after Tuomi had an offensive rebound and put back after Clarke had missed two free throws. The points were the first of the second overtime. On the next possession, Rhoads would give VU a four-point lead with a jumper with 3:17 to play.
Angela Puleo missed her first six three-pointers, but her seventh hit nothing but net to give VU a four-point lead again with 2:09 to play. The three-pointer was followed by a Florida layup and then Tuomi hit two free throws with 1:28 to play to put Vanderbilt back up by four.
Florida would cut it to three with 19 seconds to play, but Vanderbilt iced the game with free throws.
The win was Vanderbilt’s seventh in a row against Florida — the most in a row by either team in the series.
Florida led 10-9 with 15:50 to play in the first half, but the Commodores did not relinquish the lead again until Florida took a 90-88 lead with 1:31 to play in the first overtime. Vanderbilt led by as many as 13 in the second half.
Neither team was able to gain much of an advantage at the start of the game. At the 15:38 mark of the first half, the game had already featured six lead changes. Vanderbilt would finally take an eight-point lead 25-17 with 10:37 to play.
Vanderbilt broke a 27-27 tie by scoring six straight points and ended the first half on a 14-3 run to take a 41-30 lead at the half.
The Commodores will continue their road trip on Thursday when they travel to Athens, Ga., to face Georgia at 6 p.m. CT (CSS).
