Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse on teams hot first half

The Vanderbilt Commodores lead their instate rival, and the fifth ranked team in the nation, the Tennessee Volunteers, at the half 39-37. Before heading into the locker room, the SEC Network team covering the game caught up with Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse. The Commodores head coach gave his assessment of the game and what his team has to do in the second half to pull off the upset on the road.

“We just gotta keep playing with pace and playing with toughness. And our bigs got into some foul trouble there. Lee Dort came in and gave us some big minutes. Our freshmen were huge in that first half, and Shelby was as well. (They) bought us some time. Hopefully, we get those guys back involved in the second half,” said Stackhouse.

Vanderbilt guard Noah Shelby has been the team’s catalyst off the bench, along with Liam Robbins. The duo leads the Commodores in the game in scoring with 12 and 11 points, respectively. They are also the only two players currently in double digits. Vanderbilt has also done a solid job keeping the Volunteers’ offense in check. As the two teams gear up for the start of the second half, if Vanderbilt is to come out of this contest on top, they will need to continue their aggressive defensive play complemented by timely basket-making.

Vanderbilt goes cold in the second half

It was a tale of two halves for the Commodores. Similar to the first half, Vanderbilt started off the second half in a shooting slump. However, this time around, they were unable to climb their way out of the hole as Tennessee’s vaunted suffocating defense put the clamps on the Commodores early in the second half. The Volunteers’ defense allowed them to jump out to a double-digit lead. Vanderbilt was able to make it close down the stretch, but not close enough to make Tennessee sweat as the Volunteers went on to win the game 77- 68. Tennesse would outscore their SEC East rival 40-29 in the second half.