Johnnies rotten

Storm smoked by Vandy

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings knew his team was ready to compete. He just didn’t expect the 19thranked Commodores’ 9255 victory over St. John’s on Monday in the opening round of the Maui Invitational.

“I don’t think you ever anticipate a game like that,” he said after his team shot 53 percent from the f ield, 48 percent from 3point range and outrebounded the Red Storm 4926. “We had a lot of people play well and we shot the ball well.”

Jeff Roberson had 11 points and 13 rebounds for Vanderbilt, which opened the game with a 274 run.

The Commodores (40) will meet Wake Forest in the semifinals on Tuesday after the Demon Deacons downed No. 13 Indiana 8278 on Monday.

Vanderbilt scored the game’s first nine points and it only got worse from there for the Red Storm (31), who lost for the first time under firstyear coach Chris Mullin and nearly suffered the worst loss in school history.

Luke Kornet, one of Vanderbilt’s three 7footers, had 13 points and seven rebounds, and Camron Justice added 11 points.

“Rebounding is a lot about mentality,” Kornet said. “I just tried to be as much of a physical presence as I could around the goal.”

Federico Mussini led the Red Storm with 14 points.

“You have to learn from a game like this and move on,” Mullin said. “It was their length that hurt us. That was the best team we played against. It’s about what happens from here. How do we come back from this? We’ll watch film tonight and come back tomorrow.”

Mullin was able to find one bright spot.

“We only had eight turnovers,” he said.

When the Commodores went up 305, they had made 10 of their first 18 shots from the field. St. John’s had made two of 18 in the same span.

The lead got as high as 4815 with 3:39 to play in the first half, and the Commodores led 5324 at the break.

Depth was certainly an issue, with Vanderbilt’s subs outscoring St. John’s 260 in the first half.

St. John’s played without freshman guard Malik Ellison (foot) and junior college transfer forward Darien Williams (shoulder).