Rodney Chatman scored 16 of his 24 points in the first half as Vanderbilt opened an 18-point lead and then held off No. 25 LSU 75-66 in a matchup of struggling SEC teams Saturday night in Nashville, Tenn.
Myles Stute scored 17 points and Jordan Wright 13 for the Commodores (12-10, 4-6), who had lost four of their previous five games. Scotty Pippen Jr. had nine assists.
LSU (16-7, 4-6) has lost six of its past seven and surely will fall out of the Top 25 rankings. Tari Eason scored 16 points, Eric Gaines added 14, and Darius Days had 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Chatman’s driving layup gave the Commodores a 69-48 lead with 9:47 to go. But Vanderbilt suddenly went cold from the floor and also had trouble navigating the Tigers’ full-court pressure.
LSU scored 16 consecutive points, 12 by Eason, to cut the deficit to 69-64 with 4:47 to play. Pippen hit one of two foul shots to halt the Commodores’ drought of five-plus minutes, and Chatman’s 3-pointer extended the lead to 73-64 with 3:27 left.
Earlier in the second half, the Tigers had tried to chip away at Vanderbilt’s 43-25 halftime lead with only minimal success.
Gaines’ 3-pointer cut the deficit to 54-43 with 15:49 to go, but an 11-3 run capped by a Wright three with 10:57 left put Vanderbilt in front 65-46.
Brandon Murray’s 3-pointer gave LSU an early 11-6 lead, but Vanderbilt responded with a 10-0 run. It included a corner three by Stute off a pass from Wright. On the following LSU possession, Pippen stripped the ball from Justice Williams and went in for an uncontested dunk and a 16-11 lead with 13:27 left in the half.
Vanderbilt eventually extended its lead to 26-15 on Chatman’s 3-pointer with 7:34 left in the half.
Another three by Chatman put the Commodores ahead 41-23 with 51 seconds left. He lined up another trey but missed. However, Stute got into the lane, and despite the presence of three LSU players, grabbed the rebound and put it back for a 43-23 advantage.
Efton Reid’s layup for LSU closed the first-half scoring.
–Field Level Media
