NASHVILLE – Vanderbilt’s Duke Miles scored 30 points and Tyler Tanner added 19, leading the 22nd-ranked Commodores to a 75-68 win over No. 25 Tennessee in a Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinal matchup on Friday.
Both guards grabbed six rebounds, while Miles added five assists and three steals and Tanner had four assists.
Miles was 11-of-14 from the floor and made 4 of 5 3-pointers for the fourth-seeded Commodores (25-7), who beat their in-state rivals for the second time in seven days to advance to face top seed Florida on Saturday.
Vanderbilt went through a 6:36 field-goal drought late in the game but was helped by being in the bonus with 9:21 left. The Commodores shot 84.6% from the foul line (22 of 26) and made 16 of 18 (88.9%) in the second half
Ja’Kobi Gillespie paced No. 5 seed Tennessee (22-11) with 21 points and four assists, while Nate Ament and J.P. Estrella added 12 points each.
Ament, who scored 27 against Auburn on Thursday in his return from a two-game absence due to a leg injury, grabbed 11 rebounds but was 1-of-13 from the field.
Tennessee kept it close thanks to a 46-34 rebounding edge, including 23 offensive boards it turned into 24 second-chance points.
Gillespie hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Volunteers a 45-38 lead with 14:51 left, the biggest for either team to that point.
Miles then took over the game for a dizzying spell that spanned 3:03 and included a pair of threes, a coast-to-coast fastbreak layup, a steal and a fastbreak assist to Tanner for his layup and subsequent free throw, a rebound and fast-break assist to Chandler Bing for his three-point play and a pair of free throws in the midst of all that.
At the end of it all, that put Vanderbilt up 53-48 with 11:21 left.
Neither team led by four during a grind-it-out first half that ended tied at 31.
The Commodores missed their first nine 3-pointers until Miles canned one to give Vandy an 18-16 lead, its biggest of the first half.
Ament scored just one point in 14 first-half minutes for the Volunteers, missing all five field-goal attempts.
Vanderbilt, which also took a road game over Tennessee on Saturday, is 2-1 against its in-state rival this season.
– Chris Lee, Field Level Media
