Following up after a victory over your biggest rival is never an easy thing to do.
It looks like the Vanderbilt women's basketball team didn't get the memo.
The Commodores (14-4, 3-0 Southeastern Conference), playing in their first game since defeating national power Tennessee last Sunday, beat the LSU Tigers by a score of 75-67 yesterday before a raucous crowd of over 7,000. Vanderbilt was led by senior Christina Wirth, who scored 17 points, and sophomore Chanel Chisholm, who added a career-high 15. Junior Jessica Mooney, senior Jennifer Risper and junior Meredith Marsh each chipped in 10 points, and sophomore Hannah Tuomi added 10 rebounds.
"Chanel really stepped up for us today," said coach Melanie Balcomb. "She created so many aggressive opportunities for our team. She came off the bench and gave us a huge spark."
It seemed as if there may have been a post-Tennessee hangover for the Commodores in the first half, as LSU built a moderate lead and led the whole way until Chisholm hit a lay-up to send the team into the locker room ahead 31-30.
"We struggled offensively in the first half," Balcomb said. "But we were able to get a lot of offensive rebounds and that led to second chance points."
Indeed, the Commodores controlled the glass, out-rebounding LSU 42-33. The exceptional rebounding, coupled with a balanced scoring attack proved to be too much for the Tigers, as Vanderbilt, began to pull away in the second half.
"We tried to throw everything we could at them defensively and my credit goes to them for responding to the adjustments that we threw at them," said LSU coach Van Chancellor.
The victory over LSU (9-6, 2-1) marks the first time since 2001 that Vanderbilt has started out 3-0 in SEC play. After a few bumps in the beginning of the season, it looks like the Commodores, who were tabbed by many as the preseason SEC favorite, are hitting their stride at just the right time as they prepare to take road trips to Georgia and South Carolina.
"We are just taking it game-by-game," Balcomb said.
Let the rest of the league take notice.
