Vandy’s buzzer-beater stuns Vols
It was the dunk that wasn’t and the 3-pointer that was.
Tennessee snatched defeat from the jaws of victory Wednesday night inside Nashville’s Memorial Gym, as Vanderbilt stunned the No. 6 Volunteers 66-65 on a Tyrin Lawrence 3-pointer as time expired. The Commodores defeated the Vols for the first time since Feb. 22, 2017, ending an 11-game series losing streak.
Ezra Manjon drove to the basket with 4.8 seconds remaining but encountered significant traffic and fired a pass into the corner to Lawrence, who was all alone.
“They drew it up for Ezra to get downhill and make a play,” Lawrence told the SEC Network. “Fortunately he found me, and I was able to knock it down.”
The Vols will forever wonder how they gave the Commodores that chance.
Tennessee had a 65-63 lead with 17.2 seconds remaining, and Vanderbilt had just two team fouls, forcing the Commodores to foul intentionally five times to send the Vols to the free-throw line. In one of the sequences, Tyreke Key threw to Julian Phillips, who was breaking for the basket but eschewed a dunk in order to bring the ball back out to run off more time.
When Tennessee finally did get to the line with eight seconds left, Santiago Vescovi missed the front end of a oneand-one opportunity.
“We should have dunked the ball and didn’t, and we missed a one-and-one,” coach Rick Barnes said on the Vol Network. “We did the one thing that we said we couldn’t do, which was give up a three-point shot. I know our guys are disappointed, and give Vanderbilt credit, because they made the shot they needed to win the game.
“This time of year, though, we can’t make the mental mistakes that we did there.”
Lawrence’s 19 points led the Commodores, who improved to 12-12 overall and 5-6 in
Southeastern Conference play, while Liam Robbins added 14 and Jordan Wright 12. Key and Vescovi tallied 14 apiece for Tennessee (19-5, 8-3), with Phillips and Olivier Nkamhoua each adding 10.