Jason Edwards scored a season-high 30 points as Vanderbilt broke open a tight game with a second-half scoring spurt in an 83-74 win against TCU in the first game of the USLBM Coast-to-Coast Challenge on Sunday in Fort Worth, Texas.
Devin McGlockton scored 10 points, Tyler Nickel had nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range, and Tyler Tanner also chipped in nine points for Vanderbilt (9-1). The Commodores are off to their best start since the 2007-08 season.
Ernest Udeh Jr., Brendan Wenzel, Trazarien White and David Punch all scored 11 points for TCU (5-4).
After a back-and-forth game where neither team led by more than six points, Vanderbilt exploded for a 9-0 second-half run that spanned more than three minutes.
Jaylen Carey (six points) made a tough basket in the paint to match Vanderbilt’s largest lead of the game at 63-58 with 7:08 left in the game. On the next TCU offensive set, Tanner intercepted a pass, started the fast break and drew a foul as he converted a layup and the Commodores started to pull away.
An offensive rebound by MJ Collins led to a second-chance scoring opportunity and Vanderbilt took a 68-58 lead with 5:28 left in the game. TCU drew within four, but the Commodores salted it away at the free-throw line.
The Commodores scored 22 points off 18 TCU turnovers and had a 15-2 edge in second-chance points.
In the first half, TCU took its biggest lead early when White nailed back-to-back 3-pointers for an 8-2 lead. Neither team led by more than four the rest of the half.
Just before halftime, Nickel beat the buzzer off a broken play when he heaved a 35-foot 3-pointer that banked in from the wing to give Vanderbilt its largest lead of the half at 41-38.
Breathing room was hard to come by in the second half as well. Punch put the exclamation point on a 5-0 TCU run with a 3-pointer as TCU went up 44-41. But Vanderbilt started its closing rally on a layup by Edwards that established a 50-45 Commodores lead with 16:15 left in the game.
–Field Level Media
