No. 24 Vanderbilt rides sharp shooting to split series with No. 23 Tennessee

Tyler Tanner scored 25 points, AK Okereke had 17 and Duke Miles had 13 with four steals to lead No. 24 Vanderbilt in an 86-82 Southeastern Conference loss to No. 23 Tennessee on Saturday in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The Commodores (24-7, 11-7 SEC) shot 52.9% from the floor, 50% from 3 and 84.4% from the line, but never trailed. Vanderbilt avenged a four-point loss to the Vols two Saturdays ago in Nashville and snapped Tennessee’s eight-game home winning streak in the series.

Amari Evans scored a career-high 24 points for Tennessee (21-10, 11-7). JP Estrella had 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Felix Okpara had 8 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks. Ja’Kobi Gillespie had 17 points and four assists.

The Vols stayed within striking distance thanks to a rebounding edge (40-31), a full-court press that forced turnovers late in the game, and strong second-half play from Estrella.

Vanderbilt led by double digits throughout the second half until Tennessee’s Bishop Boswell caught a steal and hit Gillespie for a fastbreak layup to cut the lead to 65-57 with 7:22 left.

Tennessee pulled within four points three times in the final 32 seconds. But the Vols put Vanderbilt in the bonus with 11:24 remaining. Here, Tanner (9-of-10 from the line) and Miles (7-of-7) consistently responded to every run Tennessee made.

The Commodores led 32-20 at halftime. Despite going 0-of-3 on 3-point attempts, they outscored Tennessee 44.8% to 32.1% and stayed even with the Vols as the nation’s best offensive rebounding team in the first half.

Vanderbilt led 6-0 before the Vols finally got a jumper from Evans (12 points in the first half). Vanderbilt then ran nine more times to take a 15-2 lead, leading to a Tennessee timeout with 13:33 left.

Nate Ament (17.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg), Tennessee’s second-leading scorer and leading rebounder, did not play due to a foot injury. He also missed Tennessee’s win over South Carolina on Tuesday.

–Field level media