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Home > SECWB News & More! > SEC Teams > Vanderbilt > Vanderbilt Coasts to Second Straight Win
Vanderbilt Coasts to Second Straight Win
by LeAnne Harrington, SECWB.com
Posted: November 12th, 2007 @ 9:38am
Source: View Box Score
The Vanderbilt Commodores held the Furman Paladins scoreless for nearly the first seven minutes of the game, racing out to a 14-0 lead which they never relinquished on their way to a decisive 68-51 win. The Commodores led by as many as 30 points midway through the second half, and with the outcome never really in doubt, every Commodore got to see action. Sophomore guard Jessica Mooney scored 8 of those first 14 for Vandy and finished as her team’s second leading scorer with 10 for the game. Vandy’s Christina Wirth led all scorers with 17 points, while grabbing 6 rebounds and dishing 3 assists. Furman’s leading scorer was Lee Stephens who came off the bench to score 13. The most impressive stat of the game may be the fact that Vanderbilt held Furman’s starting five to a total of 21 points.
Vanderbilt started the game on fire, hitting 65.4% of their shots in the first half. Their shooting cooled in the second half however, but they still finished with a respectable 52.1% field goal percentage for the game. The Commodores continued their production from behind the arc, connecting on 8-of-20 3-pointers for 40%. Vanderbilt had another solid effort of spreading the ball around; they tallied 17 assists while limiting Furman to 8 for the game. Vanderbilt had 10 steals and also forced Furman into 23 turnovers, scoring 28 points off those turnovers. For the second straight game however, Vanderbilt’s glaring area for improvement is in free throw shooting. The Commodores hit only 10 of 18 for a dismal 55.6% from the charity stripe.
Despite the seeming solid stats, Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb was far from pleased with her team's efforts against the Paladins. Balcomb summarized it thusly: "That good start won the game for us. We played them pretty much evenly the rest of the game. We've got to maintain what we started." Balcomb was especially displeased with her team's defensive performance around the perimeter where Furman was able to connect on 8-of-15 3-pointers. It caused the Vandy coach to switch out of their matchup zone defense and go back to man-to-man which they played the remainder of the game. VU defensive specialist Mooney said, "we didn't play as hard as we should have. We took it for granted that we had the game in the bag. We should have finished better than we did." I would imagine Balcomb will have her 'Dores working on their defensive intensity throughout the remainder of their non-conference schedule. A lapse such as the one the Commodores suffered against Furman didn't really affect the outcome of this game. But come January and the heart of their SEC schedule, defensive lapses will usually have far worse results, and Coach Balcomb is going to make sure her young Commodore team realizes that fact.
Vanderbilt freshman Jence Rhoads seems to have solidified her place in the starting lineup, but with such depth at the point guard/#2 guard positions, look for Merideth Marsh to continue getting good minutes off the bench. Marsh is making the most of those minutes, scoring 9 against the Paladins on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.
Vanderbilt hits the road for their next game, traveling to Terre Haute to face Indiana State on Weds. Nov.14. Game time is set for 6 pm CST.
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