The Vanderbilt Commodores (17-4, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) displayed equal amounts of excellence and ineptitude Wednesday night, but the flashes of brilliance won out.
Barely.
Led by another sterling effort from senior guard Jermaine Beal (team-high 17 points), the Commodores squeaked out a 75-72 victory over a hungry Mississippi State team (16-6, 4-3) looking for a signature conference road victory. Vanderbilt certainly tried their best to hand this one to the Bulldogs, with sloppy play, poor time management and mind-boggling mistakes allowing their SEC West foe to sneak to within one in the closing minutes after the Commodores blew two 14-point leads.
“That was a little bit interesting at the end,” said Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings. “We played well defensively throughout the game … (but) our end of game execution was poor. We made a number of bad decisions.”
Even so, the Commodores were able to dominate stretches of the game, which allowed them to establish an advantage that proved insurmountable. With the score tied at 29 with 4:03 left in the first half, Vanderbilt went into the locker room on a 9-2 run with Beal scoring the last five points of the frame. With 12 first-half points, Beal was well on his way to leading the Commodores in scoring for the third straight game.
“My teammates are looking for me,” Beal said. “I’m making shots right now, and my hand is hot. Hopefully we can keep winning and having everyone contribute.”
Among the Vanderbilt contributors was freshman standout John Jenkins, who was able to ice this one by hitting two crucial free throws with six seconds remaining. However, the sharp-shooting guard was quick to point out his error on the play — one of many by the Commodores in the closing seconds — as he took the ball inside when Vanderbilt had the chance to continue running out the clock.
“I made a freshman mistake,” Jenkins said. “It won’t happen again. I was confident I was going to make the free throws, though.”
Jenkins finished with 12 points, one of four Commodores who scored in double figures, along with junior center A.J. Ogilvy (16 points and seven rebounds) and sophomore guard Brad Tinsley (11 points). Nevertheless, Stallings was quick to highlight the team’s late mistakes and their consequent need to correct them as they move forward in SEC play.
“We got tentative with the ball, were careless with the ball and turned it over,” Stallings said. “We had no flow on offense at the end of the game. …We were not aggressive and were aggressive at times we shouldn’t have been…
“(But) we beat a good basketball team, and we’re excited to have won the game.”
Up next for the Commodores is a Saturday trip to Athens, Ga., where a talent-laden — if disappointing — Georgia squad (9-11, 1-6) is eager for an upset after a crushing 72-68 loss to Arkansas Wednesday night. Though they have yet to put the pieces together so far in SEC play, the Bulldogs are led by two sophomores — forward Trey Thompkins (17.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg) and guard Travis Leslie (14.2 ppg, 6.5 rpg) — who present serious threats to a Vanderbilt team that has, at times, shown susceptibility on the boards.
At the same time, the Commodores have already left six SEC opponents in the dust and have impressed them along the way.
“It’s never easy when you come into (Memorial Gym),” said Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury. “There’s no question this is one of the better Vanderbilt basketball teams that I’ve seen here in a long time…
“They’ll be hard to beat for anybody.”
