Men's College Basketball, NCAA Basketball NEWS
Vols Don’t Stay No.1 For Long
Published by MoonDog on February 27, 2008
The Tennessee Volunteers lasted a little more than 24 hours as the No.1 ranked team in the country, losing Tuesday night to No. 14 Vanderbilt 72-69 in front of 14,325 at Memorial Gym in Nashville.
Monday afternoon the Vols were ranked No. 1 in both polls for the first time in school history. They found out it’s a lot harder to hang on to the top spot when Vandy’s Shan Foster poured in 32 points to lead the Commodores to victory.
The Vols, 25-3 overall, 11-2 SEC, were led by Chris Lofton with 25 points, while Tyler Smith added 11 points and 17 rebounds.
Vanderbilt, 24-4 overall, 9-4 SEC, forced the Vols to take outside shots all night. Tennessee had one of their worst shooting games of the season, finishing 20-for-61 from the field, including 7-for-27 from 3-point range.
Vanderbilt enjoyed a one-week layoff to prepare for the Volunteers while Tennessee had to make another trip down I-40 West just three days after their 66-62 victory over then-No.1 Memphis on Saturday.
The week-long rest paid dividends as the Commodores were much quicker to the ball throughout the game. But the Vols never gave up. With Vandy leading by 14 in the first half, Tennessee roared back despite the quick turnaround and horrendous first half shooting, and trailed 31-28 going into the locker room at halftime.
The teams swapped the lead four times with three ties before Alan Metcalfe’s 3-pointer broke a 43-all tie with 14:20 left, and Vandy never trailed again. Tennessee held a 43-36 rebounding edge but were forced to take outside shots most of the night because of Vandy’s height advantage.
Tennessee stayed close enough to keep sending Vandy to the free throw line and pulled within 72-69 on a dunk by Wayne Chisum with 7.5 seconds remaining in the game.
After a Tennessee timeout, Vandy’s Ross Neltner got the ball past the Vols’ full-court press to Shan Foster who passed to Keegan Bell, nearly forcing him to go past the end line while retrieving the ball. The Vols fouled Bell with 1.8 seconds left, sending him to the line where he promptly missed both attempts. A desperation heave towards the Vols basket went deep into the seats at the buzzer.
Jermaine Beal added 17 points and Alex Gordon 11 as Vanderbilt won its seventh straight.
“They came out with the passion and played with more intensity than us. They wanted it more than us tonight, and it showed. They got the win and they deserved it,” Tennessee’s Chris Lofton said.
After the game Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings was elated with his team’s win. “It’s special.” “We needed a win. It was a home game. It’s a big game for them. You want to win any game, but you certainly want to win big games. This was a big game.”
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