Jordan Wright played a spectacular game late Saturday afternoon at Georgia leading his Vanderbilt Commodores to a 73-66 victory over the Georgia Bulldogs at Stegman Coliseum in Athens. It was kind of fun to put a damper on their football celebration, though they played quite a football game against Alabama in winning the National Championship.
With the victory, the team moved to 10-6 overall and 2-2 in the SEC. Excellent to get a road victory after 2 tough losses at home to South Carolina and Kentucky, respectively. Georgia dropped to 5-12, and 0-4 in conference. Any SEC victory on the road is superb in my book.
Jordan poured in 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 from trifecta, he pulled down 12 boards and added 6 assists. If J Wright can play like that with Scotty and company, that would help us tremendously going forward. Scotty had 13, and 7 assists. Quentin Millora-Brown added 11 points with 6 boards. Q played an excellent game as well. Myles Stute kicked in 9. Myles was 2 of 4 from triple.
So a very good game for the team, and now the No.24 Vols invade Memorial tonight at 8 on the SEC Network. The Vols are 11-5 overall and 2-3 in the SEC. They own victories over Ole Miss and South Carolina at home, and have incurred losses to Alabama, LSU and Kentucky on the road. The Wildcats blasted them Saturday, 107-79. It was more about Kentucky than it was Tennessee. They’re on a major roll. Their big man, Oscar Tshiebwe, is a dominant player at 6’9”, 255. Guard TyTy Washington is playing outstanding basketball as well. We kind of got blasted by them last Tuesday Night, but we kept fighting and only lost by 12. We had a 25 point deficit at one point. We’ll see’ em again later in the season and maybe we can get a different result.
But that’s down the road. Tonight, we’ve got a major challenge.. UT is led in scoring by 6’3”, guard Santiago Vescovi, from Uruguay. He averages 14 per game. Guard Kenny Chandler averages 13.6 ppg. Six foot 8 inch Olivier Nkamhoa, from Finland, averages 9.1 ppg and 5.6 boards. Six foot 9 forward John Fulkerson, who seems like he’s been there forever, averages 8.4 ppg and 5.6 rebounds as well.
So we need to play well tonight to get over the top. They average 37 rebounds as a team, they are shooting 42% from the field and 33% from 3. They’re not a prolific offensive team. We’re averaging 34.9 boards per game, our opponents are averaging 34.8, we’re shooting 41 percent from the field and 31% from trifecta. We’re shooting 71% from the line and they’re shooting 66%. Need to be good in all those areas tonight and we’ll need to do a good job taking care of the ball AND defending to emerge victorious. Opponents are shooting 41% from the field against us and 31% from three, and 73% from the line, so pretty solid defensive numbers.
Will have more on the team tomorrow from tonight’s game, hopefully a huge victory at home, along with our NFL guys in the playoffs and some of our NBA guys who are excelling. Have a great evening and Go Dores. Let’s get this done.