Vanderbilt guards lead upset of Kentucky in SEC tourney

Nashville, Tenn.– No. 6 seed Vanderbilt (19-13, 11-7 SEC) defeated No. 3 seed Kentucky, 80-73, in the quarterfinals of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena.

Ezra Manjon led the charge with 25 points while Jordan Wright (18 points, six boards) and Tyrin Lawrence (18 points) were instrumental in the win. Vanderbilt has now won 10 of its last 11 games after starting the season with a 10-12 record. Some big wins include Pitt, Arkansas, Auburn, Tennessee and Kentucky twice in nine days.

Vanderbilt’s win marked the first time it has defeated Kentucky in consecutive meetings since 2007.

Oscar Tshiebwe (19 points, 15 rebounds), Jacob Toppin (21 points, 11 boards) and Austin Reeves (22 points) were not enough for the Wildcats over the gritty Commodores team.

The Wildcats are coming off a 68-66 loss to the Commodores in the second to last game of the season and have something to prove. Usually, there’s a sea of ​​blue for Kentucky fans and Vanderbilt has the advantage of playing in their hometown.

The motivation was evident on the defensive side of the ball for both teams as buckets were hard to come by in the first five minutes. Kentucky started to heat up with Antonio Reeves’ 3-pointer at 14:08 and the crowd erupted when he hit another on the next play – giving the Wildcats an early 14-4 lead.

Vanderbilt called a timeout to slow down the momentum and Wright drilled a deep ball to get the Commodore crowd involved. Manjon followed that shot with a layup and then hit a 3-pointer to make it a 14-12 game at 11:11.

Kentucky’s physicality began to show midway through the first after Toppin and Tshiebwe both grabbed rebounds of their own on back-to-back plays to score their second layups. Toppin had six early rebounds with nine minutes remaining and four of them were offensive.

Vanderbilt didn’t slow down after a quick bucket from Kentucky as Lawrence and Trey Thomas hit the 3-ball. However, Toppin’s ability to crash the offensive boards and tip in his own miss kept the Kentucky men ablaze, putting the Wildcats up 26:20 with 6:34 remaining in the first period.

The Commodores continued to struggle to make it an exciting first half.

Wright and Manjon came through with clutch buckets as the half wound down to tie the game up at 34-34 with 1:49 remaining. Tshiebwe picked up a technical foul in the final minute and gave Colin Smith two free throws — followed by a wide-open 3-pointer for Wright to close the half with a 39-34 Vanderbilt lead.

Kentucky controlled most of the first half before the Commodores went on a 12-0 run to close. The Wildcats led the rebounding battle with 22 to the Dores’ ten, but seven 3-pointers in 15 attempts was hard to beat.

Vanderbilt didn’t miss a beat in the second half as it went on a quick 6-2 run that forced John Calipari to call a timeout at 18:29. The Wildcats slowly tried to fight back, but Vanderbilt’s momentum was strong in the first five minutes of the second period. Manjon and Wright continued to attack and put the team up 52-42 at 15:05.

The Kentucky crowd stood after the timeout and cheered when Reeves and Tshiebwe hit layups to bring the game within six points. But back-to-back buckets by Lawrence hushed the Wildcat fans and put Vanderbilt back up 59-50 with 11:58 to go.

The trio of Wright, Lawrence and Manjon all had at least 15 points at the 7:20 mark and kept the Commodores in a semi-comfortable 63-56 lead. A pair of consecutive free throws from Toppin and Reeves brought the game within three points. However, Manjon continued to apply pressure by hitting crucial 3-pointers and keeping the separation.

Vanderbilt held all the momentum until Reeves hit from deep at 2:13 to re-engage the crowd and bring the Wildcats back within striking distance, 71-67.

With just seconds left on the shot clock, Lawrence hit a huge jumper to extend the Commodores’ lead by six points. On the next play, Reeves committed an offensive foul and gave Vanderbilt the ball back with 1:00 left. However, Vanderbilt gave the ball away to Kentucky after Smith committed an offensive foul of his own.

Lawrence’s jumper put the Commodores too far for Kentucky’s comeback and more history.

Until Next Time

Vanderbilt will face No. 2 Texas A&M in the tournament semifinals on Saturday at 3pm ET – the game will be televised on ESPN.

Kentucky (21-10, 12-6 SEC) has been eliminated from the tournament.