Vanderbilt upsets Lady Vols
NASHVILLE — Tiffany Clarke scored 23 points, and the Vanderbilt Commodores upset No. 11 Tennessee 93-79 on Thursday night for their fifth straight win overall and a very rare victory over their in-state rival.
The Commodores (19-5, 7-4 SEC) got their first win against Tennessee since Jan. 11, 2009, by scoring their most points ever against their rival. For coach Melanie Balcomb, it was just her second win in 23 games against Tennessee since coming to Vanderbilt.
Tennessee (17-7, 8-3) had won 23 of the last 24 in this rivalry and seven straight. The Lady Vols, who fell out of the top 10 on Monday, now have lost two of three.
Christina Foggie scored 22 points for Vanderbilt, and Stephanie Holzer added 19. Jasmine Lister had her first double-double with 19 points and a career-high 13 assists.
Glory Johnson led Tennessee with 19 points before fouling out with 5: 59 left. Meighan Simmons had a team- high 20 points, and Shekinna Stricklen 17.
The Commodores outworked, outshot and simply outplayed Tennessee from start to finish. They shot 55.7 percent compared to 45.9 percent for Tennessee as they drove past the Lady Vols time and again for easy layups with plenty of room to hit jumpers. They also outrebounded the Lady Vols 41-27.
The result was Vanaderbilt’s highest scoring half in this series for a 42- 34 halftime lead. The Commodores built that to 48-36 on a layup by Kady Schrann with 17:00 left in the second half when Tennessee finally put 65-59 lead with eight minutes to go. Taylor closed the game with 15 points in the final 10 minutes, which helped the Mocs maintain at least a two-point lead through the final five minutes.
“I thought we played mad and angry in the second half,” Shulman said. “That game could have gone either way. But [almost] all of those losses could have gone the other way, too.”
Each of the five Elon starters scored at least 10 points. Sebastian Koch led the Phoenix with 20 points, Jack Isenbarger had 14 and Troutman added 13.
”“It’s really nice seeing our kids smile and have a good feeling for a change,” Shulman said. “It’s been exhausting. It has been rough.”
The Mocs pulled out the victory with defensive BandAids and Burroughs. Shul- men’s coach in major college history — that much worse a coach? Or could a player really make a difference?
Yes, injuries are part of the game. But the Mocs having already run off the immature and ungrateful senior forward Chris Early over Tweet-gate, they could ill afford to lose either Burro ughs or Zaccheus Mason. Instead they’ve been without both for the past two weeks and Mason remained in street clothes against Elon.
Yet one experienced post player is better than none, and Burroughs provided energy and execution for 24 strong minutes, finishing with 11 points, nine rebounds, three assists and a steal. That stat line tied his career high in points and set career marks in rebounds and assists.
Said fellow senior Ricky Taylor, who led the Mocs with 22 points, despite continued pain in his right together its best stretch.
Johnson hit a jumper starting a 16- 4 run. Stricklen, held to two points in the first half, hit a jumper and added a 3- pointer and another jumper. Taber Spani hit a pair of free throws, then Cierra Burdick tied it up at 52 with 12: 33 left.
That was the Lady Vols’ first lead since 6- 5 and finally gave the fans wearing orange something to cheer. It didn’t last because Vanderbilt didn’t wither.
Foggie hit back- to- back 3s putting Vanderbilt ahead to stay, and her 3- pointer with 8:43 left made it a 6556 lead with 8:43 left. The Commodores just kept scoring from there and went up by as much as 14 down the stretch. man repeatedly switched defenses and how they played ball- screens. The variety caused enough confusion to take the Phoenix out of their rhythm.
“I thought they mixed it up very well,” Matheny said. “I thought we did rush offensively a little bit. That’s one of the messages our team will hear tomorrow — trust in our system.”
Elon will head to Samford for a game Saturday. The Mocs will face UNC Greensboro in Mckenzie Arena.
“Hopefully we can build on this and keep having success,” Shulman said. “The shame of this is that we could have been having a lot of success.”
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@ timesfreepress.com or 423-757- 6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/uchiyamactfp. wrist: “You’ve got to give a big standing ovation tonight to Jahmal Burroughs.”
They all deserved a standing ovation for perseverance, including Shulman.
Not always the most flexible or patient of coaches, Shulman exhibited both against the crafty Phoenix. For perhaps the first time in his eight years on the UTC bench, his sport coat stayed on his torso the entire game, believed to be a first.
Then there were the actual X’s and O’s, which included keeping Shulman’s beloved “Fire” defense in the closet.
“Lebo’s tricky,” he said of Jeff Lebo, his mentor and the man he replaced as UTC’S coach. “I’m not smart enough to be tricky.”
Maybe not, but he was tricky enough to change defenses at least five times without trotting out Fire. The result was a stat sheet that showed the Mocs shooting better from the floor, the 3-point line and the foul line, tying the taller Phoenix on the glass and committing one fewer turnover.
“Every team has a story,” Burroughs said. “I know that none of my teammates have given up. We can still make a [Socon] tournament run.”
The beauty of sports is that you never know. Given up for dead after last Saturday’s blowout loss at Davidson, the Mocs had lost the previous four by a total of 11 points. Now they’ve won one, with yet another home game to come Saturday night against UNC Greensboro.
Said Taylor with a big smile as he recalled Burroughs’ late shot: “When he made that, I thought, ‘We’re back. Things are going our way again.’”
Never underestimate the power of a supernatural shot.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com or