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Home > SECWB News & More! > SEC Teams > Vanderbilt > Vanderbilt Defeats WKU, Improves to 8-2
Vanderbilt Defeats WKU, Improves to 8-2
by LeAnne Harrington, SECWB.com
Posted: December 7th, 2007 @ 1:36am
Source: View Box Score
The Vanderbilt Commodores (#17 ESPN/USA Today, #20 AP), coming off a poor shooting performance and a loss at Cal, got back on track with a 75-54 home court win over the Western Kentucky Lady Toppers on Thursday night, Dec. 6. With the win, Vandy improves to 8-2, while WKU falls to 6-3. Commodore senior center Liz Sherwood, who had suffered through several sub-par performances in the past few games, led all scorers with 20 points in 22 minutes of action. Jen Risper tossed in 12 and Jessica Mooney continued to be a spark off the bench for the Commodores, scoring 16 on 7-of-8 shooting from the field. Senior center Crystal Kelly notched another double-double for the Lady Toppers, scoring 15 points while pulling down 11 rebounds, but was held to 8 points below her season average. Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb commented, “Crystal got a double-double, but we did hold her down. Our game plan was to get her in foul trouble, which we did... We wanted to take it at her. We did try to not send her to the free throw line and she only shot seven free throws and she usually shoots almost 14 a game. She's one of the best post players we play against every year."
Vanderbilt and WKU both came out scorching the nets, combining for 25 points in the first 4 minutes of the game, but Western then went stone cold, hitting only one field goal in the final 14 minutes of the first half. For the half, WKU’s field goal percentage was a dismal 26.9% while Vandy connected on 51.7% of their opening half shots, taking a 35-26 lead into the locker room. The Commodores picked up in the second half where they had left off in the first, hitting the first 8 points of the second period and opening up a 43-26 lead. The Lady Toppers got no closer as the Commodores stretched the lead to 29 points, holding a 63-34 advantage at the 11:16 mark. Western cut it to 20 with 3:28 remaining in the game, but it was over at that point. WKU improved their second half shooting somewhat, hitting 34.6% of their shots from the field, but Vanderbilt hit 50% of theirs, to finish with an impressive 50.8% field goal percentage for the game.
The Lady Toppers won the battle on the boards, outrebounding the Commodores by a whopping 47-31 margin, but it was all for naught as they couldn’t connect on their shots. WKU committed a season-high 29 turnovers which led to 26 Vanderbilt points, and the Commodores snagged 17 steals while blocking 9 Lady Topper shots, with 4 blocks by Sherwood. Vanderbilt took better care of the ball in this game, committing 15 turnovers, but the Commodores’ struggles at the line continued; they hit only 7-of-16 free throws for an ugly 43.8%.
All in all, it was a solid performance for the ’Dores, but there are still areas for improvement. Free throw shooting continues to be a sore spot, and may yet come back to haunt them in a close game. Luckily, this game was firmly in hand and it didn’t prove to be a deciding factor, but the Commodores may not be so lucky down the line as the season progresses. Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb stuck with the same starting 5 as last game, but predicted several more lineup changes before too long. Balcomb stated: “I don't see anything permanent. We're too young to be permanent. We've changed the lineup after every loss. We didn't change this game because we were just totally flat. There wasn't one person that beat someone else or was more productive to make us switch. We'll probably switch the lineup a couple more times. We won't know our rotation or roles until we get into conference play."
Vanderbilt’s next game is at home against Colorado on Sunday, Dec. 9. Game time is set for 2pm at Memorial Gym.
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