Saturday, January 13, 2007

Commies drop Another they Shouldn't: Bitten by Dawgs in Athens

You knew Vanderbilt was in trouble when they went into the locker room down 40-39. Derrick Byars had scored 17 points and gone 5 for 5 from three-point land. Overall, Vanderbilt was 10-16 from downtown. While the Commies were good at forcing turnovers in the first, they were out-rebounded convincingly and were down 1 at the half. As expected, Vanderbilt's three-point shooting in the 2nd half was not what it was in the first. Going 3-14 from downtown, Vanderbilt was dogged by turnovers in the second, including 2 consecutive turnovers that saw the game go from a 61-60 Vanderbilt lead at the 8:45, to a 64-61 Bulldog edge. Vanderbilt would never lead again.

Ending the game on a 25-12 run, Georgia was able to shut down Byars who only netted 6 in the second. Shan Foster was contained by the Dawgs, going 3-13 for 8 points; Ross ' ineffectiveness continued on 2-7 shooting for 5 points. As has been the case frequently of late, Dan Cage kept Vanderbilt in the game, scoring 17 points on 5-9 shooting from behind the arc. Vanderbilt was able to force 15 Georgia turnovers, but was only able to convert those turnovers into 19 points. Georgia, on the other hand, was able to turn Vanderbilt's 11 turnovers into 20 points.
Vanderbilt only took 8 free-throws in the game, and was out-rebounded (surprise, surprise) 43-33. What's worse about that stat, is the -10 differential was an improvement after the first half. Vanderbilt plays host to Alabama on Wednesday in Memorial. Given the Commies' M.O., they are likely to beat the #13 Tide and give Commodore Nation hopes that can be dashed at a later date.

1 comment:

Stanimal said...

I'm not necessarily going to say that we dropped one that we shouldn't have. In order for that to be the case, it would mean that we were clearly the favored and better team in this match-up. I think what we have is a case where Georgia is about at our level.

First off, we were 7.5 point under-dogs. Second, this Georgia team is hardly bad. They lost to Western Kentucky, who is currently leading the Sun Belt, followed by Georgia Tech, who we know is a good team, Clemson, Wisconsin, and Florida. Those are all very tough games. They also beat Gonzaga and Wake Forest.

Vandy is going to have another shot at the Dawgs come February 3rd, and this one will be at home. It's quite likely we can pick up a victory at that point. I think that we stack up relatively even with this team. We probably have more talent overall, but our streakiness levels the playing field.