Vanderbilt (5-0) had seven players in double figures and shot 53.4% from the field in a 109-74 rout of Texas Southern (0-5) in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday evening.
The Commodores’ Tyler Tanner notched 20 points and seven assists while adding a block and two steals.
Tyler Nickel (20 points), Devin McGlockton (14), Duke Miles (12), AK Okereke and Jalen Washington (11 each) and Tyler Harris (10) scored in double digits.
Vanderbilt, which averaged 101.5 points per game coming in, cracked the 100-point mark for the fourth time when Nickel canned three foul shots with 4:03 left.
Texas Southern’s two leading scorers, Troy Hupstead (averaging 19.7 points entering the game) and Zaire Hayes (14.0), had just eight and nine, respectively.
Jaylen Wysinger and Alex Anderson led the Tigers, who had just two assists to 14 turnovers, with 12 points apiece.
Vanderbilt led by 27 at halftime and took its first 30-point lead (64-33 ) on Nickel’s fast-break lay-up with 18:40 to play.
The Commodores trailed 4-3 early before a 16-2 scoring blitz in a span of 2:07, which included three baskets directly off steals, put them up 19-6.
A Washington steal — Vanderbilt’s sixth of the half — led to a fast-break layup from Chandler Bing and its first 18-point lead (32-14) with 10:54 left in the half.
Tanner ended the half with a driving layup that pushed the margin to 60-33, marking Vanderbilt’s largest lead of the period.
The Commodores shot 60.5% from the floor and 42.9% from beyond the arc in the first half.
Center Mason Nicholson, a Jacksonville State transfer who’s expected to be a big part of Vanderbilt’s front court, made his season debut. He missed the first four games with a health issue but logged nine minutes and scored two points.
Vanderbilt played without reserve point guard Frankie Collins, who missed his second-straight game due to injury.
–Field Level Media
