The Tennessee men's basketball team began a tough stretch of SEC play with a road matchup with the Vanderbilt Commodores on Tuesday night. The 'Dores used a quick 19-4 start to build an insurmountable lead and take out Tennessee 90-71 at Memorial Gym in Nashville.
J.P. Prince led the Vols with 19 points, while Wayne Chism added 16 and Melvin Goins came off the bench for 11.
Jeffery Taylor tallied a career-high 26 points to lead Vanderbilt. Jermaine Beal scored 20.
"We got outplayed and we did not get off to a very good start on the road," UT head coach Bruce Pearl said.
Despite a late first-half run by the Vols, the Commodores hit 12-of-23 shots in the first period to head into intermission leading 44 to 27. Vandy never looked back from there.
The Vols never appeared to find a rhythm on offense. Scotty Hopson, normally a threat from the perimeter, connected on only 1-of-5 3-pointers on the evening. UT couldn't keep Vandy off the charity stripe, as well, allowed the 'Dores 43 free throws in the contest compared to UT's 21.
"We have to do a better job of playing our brand of basketball. Vandy just played harder than us tonight," Goins said.
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