A.J. Ogilvy bumbled around the basket. Jeffrey Taylor struggled to
find his shot. Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings didn't mind.
He still had Jermaine Beal available to rescue the
Commodores.
"He's a real nice security blanket, I will tell you,"
Stallings said.
Beal scored 25 points and No. 21 Vanderbilt won its 10th
straight game with an 85-76 victory over No. 14 Tennessee on
Wednesday night. It was Vandy's first win in Knoxville in five
tries and its first win over a ranked opponent this season.
Stallings has plenty to feel good about besides Beal's clutch
play. Vanderbilt (16-3, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) is off to its
best start in the league since 1966 and will head to No. 1 Kentucky
with control of the SEC East.
"This was a fun one to win. This was a good win for our
team," said Stallings, who praised his team's ability to win with
its shooting and defensive play.
For Tennessee it meant a second straight conference loss
after falling at Georgia on Saturday. The Volunteers host Florida
on Sunday.
"If we don't start focusing better, this is going to keep
happening," Tennessee's Bobby Maze said. "The SEC's not just all of
a sudden going to start getting easier."
The teams traded the lead until a 3-pointer by Brad Tinsley
with 8:42 left put Vanderbilt up 59-56, a lead it did not
relinquish.
Beal hit a layup and two 3s in less than a minute to give
Vanderbilt control with a 74-60 cushion with 4:58 remaining.
"Beal was special," Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. "Part
of our success against Vanderbilt in the past was that we had got
the better of him. Everybody talks about A.J. Ogilvy and whether
he's a factor, but in my mind Beal has always been the guy that has
made the team go."
J.P. Prince led Tennessee (15-4, 3-2) with 22 points, and
Wayne Chism grabbed 16 rebounds. Scotty Hopson scored 14, while
Maze added 12.
The longtime state rivals were physical with each other, and
the referees made sure to call every reach-in or push they saw.
The teams were tied at 39 when Vanderbilt's Andre Walker
tangled with Prince under the Volunteers' basket. Walker was tagged
with a foul for elbowing Prince, but both earned a technical for
the words they exchanged.
Prince followed up his technical with a 3-pointer and an
alley-oop dunk off a pass from Maze with 15:31 left, but was called
for a second technical for hanging on the rim too long.
Though Prince was not ejected, the constant fouls hurt
Tennessee more than Vanderbilt. Hopson and Kenny Hall, one of the
Vols' few post players, quickly picked up their third and fourth
fouls after halftime and spent much of the second half on the
bench.
And even though both teams were called for 23 fouls, Vandy
was more poised at the free throw line, making 21 of 29 attempts
compared to Tennessee's 14-of-24 shooting from the charity stripe.
Vanderbilt shot 50.9 percent from the floor, the 11th time
this season the Commodores have hit more than half their shots.
But it wasn't until the second half that they found their
touch. Ogilvy finished with 12 after scoring two points in the
first half. John Jenkins, Taylor and Tinsley each added 10 points.
"Jermaine definitely took over," Ogilvy said. "He really put
us on his shoulders and just carried us. A great game from a
senior, and you come to expect that from Jermaine. He's been
helping us out a lot and made some big-time shots for us tonight."
