Vanderbilt struggled on the road of the Southeastern Conference this year. A neutral floor turned out to be no problem.
The 22nd-ranked Commodores defeated No. 6 Auburn 61-54 on Sunday in North Little Rock to win the SEC Tournament championship, their second title in three years and third since 2004. Senior Christina Wirth again led the scoring attack with 20 points; she was the leading scorer in all three of Vanderbilt's wins and was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
With the victory, Vanderbilt earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, marking its 10th consecutive invitation.
A proud coach Melanie Balcomb said her team embraced the challenge.
"It's been awesome," Balcomb said. "They wanted to take the shots, they wanted to get the rebounds."
As for Wirth, it was her cool demeanor that impressed her coach the most.
"What was so awesome about Tina is she was so relaxed and not just tonight, but the entire tournament," Balcomb said. "It helped her teammates be relaxed and she had a lot of trust in her teammates."
"It was a great team effort," Wirth said. "I couldn't be more proud of my team."
Vanderbilt (24-8) led by as many as 12 in the second half before the Tigers (25-3) cut it to three points after a 3-point play by SEC Player of the Year Dewanna Bonner. Junior Merideth Marsh responded with a 3-pointer, and after Auburn cut the deficit to four, freshman Tia Gibbs hit another 3, her fourth of the game to account for all of her 12 points.
Marsh knocked down two free throws for the final margin with 19 seconds left after Wirth stole an errant pass to thwart Auburn's comeback. It marked her 22nd and 23rd straight made free throw attempts.
Bonner was held to just 9 points, far below her season average. Defensive Player of the Year Jen Risper was charged with guarding her and had the 6 foot 4 inch star out of sorts.
"Just defense, that's all," Risper said.
Auburn has lost only three times this season; two of those losses have come at the hands of the Commodores.
"They just smothered you while you were on the court and played good team defense," Bonner said.
Vanderbilt got off to a rough start, missing its first eight shots and falling behind 6-0. Gibbs knocked down a 3-pointer to finally open the scoring and the Commodores outscored the Tigers 28-15 the rest of the half to take a 10-point halftime lead.
SECsports.com contributed to this article.
