Wire-to-Wire: Vanderbilt Ends Regular Season with 86–82 Victory Over Tennessee
The last time these two teams met in Nashville, the Volunteers walked out of Memorial Gym with a four-point win. On Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, the Commodores returned the favor in a regular season finale with SEC tournament implications.
Vanderbilt never trailed and held off a late push to defeat Tennessee 86–82 at Food City Center, closing the regular season with a statement road victory over their in-state rival. Vanderbilt led for essentially the entire game and built a lead as large as 17 points before the Volunteers made things interesting in the final minutes.
Vanderbilt set the tone early, jumping out to a 15-2 lead behind smothering defense, rebounding, and points in the paint. The defensive energy continued but Tennessee began to show why they are one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country. By halftime, the Commodores held a 32-22 lead.
During the first half, Tennessee shot just 32% from the field and 17% from behind the arc. Vanderbilt did not hit a single three-pointer in the first half, shooting only three as a team. Vanderbilt outscored Tennessee in the paint 20-8, a big change from the first matchup where Tennessee outscored Vanderbilt 40-22 in the paint. Duke Miles led Vanderbilt with 7 points. Tennessee’s Amari Evans led all scorers with 12.
Vanderbilt jumped out to a 40-24 lead in the second half on an AK Okereke three-pointer.
The Commodores led by as many as 17 points, 51-34, with 13:53 remaining, before Tennessee began chipping away. The Volunteers closed the gap slowly, but Vanderbilt seemingly had an answer every time Tennessee went on a run, multiple times shutting down 7-0 runs with big time shots. With five minutes remaining, Tennessee was on one of those 7-0 runs. The Volunteers had cut the lead to just five points until Tyler Tanner found Chandler Bing in the corner for a big time three-pointer.
Vanderbilt continued to answer the push from Tennessee, despite some sloppy turnovers late. The Commodores closed out the game at the free throw line and secured a massive road victory in the regular season finale over in-state rival Tennessee, 86-82. The first win for Vanderbilt over Tennessee in Knoxville since 2017. Tyler Tanner scored a game high 25 points.
Vanderbilt finishes the 2025-26 regular season 24-7 overall, 11-7 in SEC.
Always huge to get a victory over your rival, but this game was more important in both tangible and intangible ways. Vanderbilt now has a chance to be a top-4 seed and receive a double-bye in the upcoming SEC tournament – depending on the outcome of the Kentucky-Florida game. The Commodores also have a chance to bump up from a 5-seed to a 4-seed depending on how the rest of the season plays out, but more importantly Vanderbilt has locked themselves in as a worst-case 5-seed in the NCAA tournament. Also, this team really needed a good start in a game against a good team. While Vanderbilt has found ways to win the last few weeks, this felt like one of the most complete performances we have seen in a while.
The first round of the SEC Tournament begins Wednesday, March 11th, in Nashville.
Quick Team Stats
Vanderbilt put up 19 less shots than Tennessee, but shot 27-51 (53%) vs 31-70 (44%). After making zero threes in the first half, Vanderbilt ended the game 5-10 from behind the arc. The Commodores were once again outrebounded by exactly nine, just like in the first matchup. Tennessee turned the ball over 15 times vs Vanderbilt’s 10, the Volunteers turned the ball over just nine times in the last matchup. The biggest stat of this game is points in the paint. Despite the dominance Vanderbilt had in the first half, Tennessee still won that stat 40-30. However, that is a marked improvement from the last matchup.
Box Score
Tyler Tanner was once again a maestro. Have to start out pointing out his performance. At this point it is almost a game in, game out statement – Tyler Tanner led all scorers with 25 points. Was also an absolute pest on the defensive end. AK Okereke with probably the Co-MVP of this one. Consistently knocked down tough shots in key moments. That fade in the paint is a tough move to stop, almost impossible to prevent AK from getting to his spot. Chandler Bing once again stepped up in big time moments. On top of the key corner three I wrote about earlier, Bing had the highlight play of the day, throwing down a thunderous dunk in transition and silencing the orange and white crowd.
Tyler Nickel got going from behind the arc but struggled to get open consistently. The confidence may also be a bit shaky, less willing to let it fly with just a sliver of space. Had a couple of not-so-great halfcourt turnovers. Duke Miles hit some tough shots, especially early. Felt out of control driving the ball at times, played well defensively outside of fouls. To no one’s surprise, Miles once again struggled with foul trouble all game before eventually fouling out. Devin McGlockton was solid, Jalen Washington was also solid. Really need both of those guys to be more physical and finish stronger around the rim. We did not see Mike James, he was returning from what I believe is a hand injury.
Time to root for the Florida Gators over the Wildcats – it is almost tournament time.
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