Future opponents likely won't make the mistake of leaving Vanderbilt freshman John Jenkins open. Not after what he did to Georgia.
Jenkins scored 22 of his career-high 25 points in the second half, and No. 20 Vanderbilt held off Georgia 78-66 Friday night in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals. Jenkins hit 5 of 8 from 3-point range and scored 12 straight points during one stretch.
``If he's left open, he's unstoppable and if we can get him open, he's unstoppable,'' Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. ``He's going to make open shots. There's just not very many days during the week you don't see him have a good shooting day. His jumper is fundamentally flawless, and he has a high level of belief in it. And so does his coach.''
The Commodores (24-7) came in with only their third first-round bye since the SEC went to divisional play in 1992 as the East's No. 2 seed, and they managed to reach the semifinals for the first time since 2004 and just the second time in Stallings' 11 seasons.
A program that has only one SEC tournament title back in 1951 will play Mississippi State, the West's No. 1 seed and a 75-69 winner over Florida, on Saturday. It will be a quick turnaround with tip-off set about 15 hours after this game finished. Stallings said their motto has been ``Any time, any place.''
``So if they wanted to play that game in an hour, we would be ready to play and we would be willing to play,'' Stallings said.
The Commodores hadn't had even a minute to look ahead to Mississippi State or the SEC's top shot blocker - Jarvis Varnado.
``He's got my shot a couple times,'' Jenkins said, ``We'll get ready for him.''
Jermaine Beal also had 16 points and A.J. Ogilvy had 10 points as Vanderbilt bounced back from blowing a 10-point lead in losing to South Carolina last weekend on Senior Day. The Commodores also outrebounded Georgia 43-32.
``If it keeps up, we might get to keep playing for a while,'' Stallings said of the rebounding performance.
Georgia (14-17) couldn't recreate the magic of 2008 with four wins in four days. Travis Leslie had a career-high 34 points, and Trey Thompkins had 13, all in the second half as Vanderbilt focused on trying to shut him down.
``I never felt like this team wanted this season to be over,'' first-year Georgia coach Mark Fox said. ``Often times at the end of the year you sense guys who just want it to end. I just told them they've made an impact on Georgia basketball. They gained some momentum.''
Vanderbilt had lost the last two times after a first-round bye in this tournament. Georgia looked ready to make it three after beating the Commodores in Athens 72-58 on Feb. 6 and losing on the final possession 96-94 in overtime a couple miles away from the Bridgestone Arena on Feb. 25.
``Everybody was thinking us and Georgia would be a nice matchup,'' Beal said of this game. ``I'm just happy we came out and got the victory.''
These teams looked ready to go to overtime for a second straight game in this series as they swapped the lead back and forth in the opening minutes. Beal's jumper put Vanderbilt ahead 10-9 with 15:16 left, and the Commodores never trailed again.
But Georgia was brimming with confidence - if not energy - after thumping Arkansas about 24 hours ago and just missing a chance to sweep the season series from Vanderbilt with that overtime loss.
They came back with a 12-1 spurt, and Leslie's fast-break layup tied it at 23 before Chris Barnes dunked to put Georgia back up 25-23. Steve Tchiengang answered with a layup, and Jeffery Taylor's jumper put the Commodores back up 27-25 that started a 12-2 finish to the first half for Vanderbilt and a 35-27 halftime lead.
Georgia whittled Vanderbilt's lead down to two three times in the second half, the last on Ebuka Anyaorah's free throw at 40-38 with 15:54 left. That was as close as the Bulldogs would get again as Brad Tinsley hit a long jumper 16 seconds later, and Lance Goulbourne's layup pushed it to 44-38.
That's when Vanderbilt started sinking 3s to make sure no overtime would be needed this time.
Goulbourne hit a 3, and Jenkins got going. The freshman hit consecutive 3s, added three free throws when fouled on a long shot and then added another 3 with 8:21 left to push the lead to 59-47. Vandy led 69-51 on a pair of Jenkins' free throws with 5:31 remaining.
Fox credited Jenkins with shooting very well. But he felt the difference was Vanderbilt being more physical.
``I don't know if that's the fact we played back-to-back and they came in fresh, but you have to credit them with making a lot of plays,'' Fox said.
