Coach Kevin Stallings said he had never seen South Carolina play better. Against the still-undefeated Commodores, however, even its best wasn’t enough.
Vanderbilt (16-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) displayed tough defense and clutch shooting down the stretch to beat the Gamecocks (8-7, 0-1 SEC) 80-73 at Memorial Gym on Wednesday night in front of a season-high crowd of 14,325.
The game was close throughout, and South Carolina had cut the lead to two with 2:35 remaining when senior Alex Gordon responded with an NBA-range three pointer, and the Dores never looked back.
“I thought the play before that Shan (Foster) missed a shot, and I said to myself I need to step up,” said Gordon, referring to Foster’s rare off night, where the senior finished with a season-low 13 points. “I mean, Shan Foster, the best shooter in the SEC, maybe the best shooter in the country, missed that shot, and I wanted to step up and help out our team. I said if I get that ball, I am going to shoot it.”
The team also got a significant second-half boost from freshman A.J. Ogilvy, who had a tough time getting the ball in the first half. The Australian native shook off the shaky start and scored 21 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, hitting seven of eight from the free-throw line.
South Carolina guard Devan Downey, a Cincinnati transfer who lit up the Commodores in 2005 for 18 points, gave Vanderbilt fits early on with 18 first-half points. Vandy adjusted by effectively mixing zone and man-to-man defenses to slow him down. Downey finished with 22 points, but Coach Stallings was still proud of the team’s defensive effort.
“I thought defensively we did a really good job. You look up and you see that some of their guys had 22 and 21 points, but they took 23 and 20 shots to get there.”
Foul shooting also played a big role for the Dores late in the game. In a bizarre first half, South Carolina shot the only two free throws. Vanderbilt responded by drawing 17 after halftime and only giving up two to the Gamecocks.
“I thought we did a great job of keeping them off the foul line and then getting there ourselves in the second half,” said Stallings.
Gordon and sophomore Jermaine Beal, who finished with 13 and 11 points respectively, joined Foster and Ogilvy in double figure scoring. Beal also handed out 6 assists.
Although Foster only converted 2 of his 9 threes, his second bucket broke Ronnie McMahan’s school record of 296 career three pointers. South Carolina Coach Dave Odom left the game impressed with the Commodores effort.
“I think Kevin Stallings has the makings of his best team. It's not necessarily because they are 16-0. His team plays very good basketball. They play team basketball. They are very fun to watch on tape when you don't have to play them.”
If the opener serves as any indication, the Commodores don’t have any plans of slowing down in conference play.
Vanderbilt goes on the road to take on Kentucky this Saturday at 12:30 PM.
