Vanderbilt felt it got pushed around in the first half of its Southeastern Conference tournamnent semifinal with LSU. So the 22nd-ranked Commodores decided to do something about it.
No. 2 seed Vanderbilt (23-8) used a nearly error-free second half to come from behind and defeat the third-seeded Tigers (18-10) 61-47 to advance to the finals Sunday to play top-seeded Auburn. Auburn defeated Tennessee in the earlier semifinal Saturday, 78-58.
"We really struggled in that first half," said Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb. "I thought we made really good adjustments driving to the basket in the second half."
Senior forward Christina Wirth led the Commodores with 18 points, while junior guard Jence Rhoads added 15.
Balcomb's message at halftime to the Commodores was for them to remember who they were.
"She just told us we need to start doing our game," Rhoads said. "We were letting them dicate us."
Down by as many as seven in the first half and trailing 26-23 at the break, Vanderbilt clawed back ahead and was neck-and-neck with the Tigers throughout the second half until the final tie of the game at 40. The Commodores started running away with it from there, punctuating it with a 3-point play by Rhoads to put them up 53-42 after she was fouled on a drive to the basket from the left baseline.
"My teammates had confidence in me...so I was attacking," Rhoads said.
Vanderbilt led 56-47 with 1:30 to play but LSU was content to play defense and try and get a stop. Wirth made them pay for that strategy, hitting a dagger 3-pointer as the shot clock was expiring with 55 seconds left. She ran down the court as soon as she made the shot and took an offensive charge at the other end to seal the win. The Tigers didn't even try and foul after that.
"Every time we got tied, we said 'it's 0-0, who wants it more,'" Wirth said. "You've just got to lay it on the line."
Vanderbilt only had one turnover in the second half after nine miscues in the first.
Again without sophomore forward Hannah Tuomi, the team's leading rebounder in the regular season currently sidelined by an injury, the Commodores turned to senior guard Jen Risper, the SEC defensive player of the year at just 5 feet 8 inches, and she scored 11 points and hauled down a team-high seven rebounds.
After Risper got into foul trouble, the Commodores got solid play from freshman Jordan Coleman, who didn't even see playing time in Vanderbilt's 69-61 quarterfinal win over Georgia. In just 10 minutes, she grabbed four rebounds and had a beautiful post move for a basket that had Risper jumping up and down at the bench.
"We've needed a post presence and Jordan gave us that," Balcomb said.
The final Sunday featuring the tournament's top two seeds has the Commodores expecting a war. Vanderbilt goes in seeking its third SEC tournament championship since 2004.
"It's going to be a fight," Wirth said. "They're tough and they've got a lot of players who can hurt you. It'll be a defensive battle."
