Iyana Moore led her team to a major victory over Tennessee earlier today in the SEC Tournament. (Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics).

Our trio of superb players, senior guard Iyana Moore, sophomore center Khamil Pierre, and SEC Freshman of the Year Mikayla Blakes, combined for 63 points in leading our Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball team to an 84-76 victory over the Tennessee Volunteers at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C., earlier today.

With the victory, the Commodores  moved to 23-9 on the season, while the Volunteers dropped to 22-10.

We now move into the quarterfinals  Friday to face the No.5 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks (27-3, 15-1 SEC) at 11 AM CT on E-S-P-N.

Our awesome senior, Iyana, led us throughout the first half and finished the game with 23 points on 8-for-11 from the field, and 4-for-4 from trifecta. Coach Shea Ralph said in her postgame press conference on SEC Network Live that Iyana is someone who stuck with her program when Coach Ralph came in four years ago, and her dedication to the program has paid off beautifully.

Iyana is also a terrific student and leader on this talented, hard working team.

Our great guard Mikayla Blakes finished with 24, including 7-of-8 from the free throw line. It wasn’t Mikayla’s best shooting game percentage- wise, but she found acrobatic ways to score at the rim. She is a phenom.

Our center, sophomore Khamil Pierre, finished with 16 points and 15 boards! It was Khamil’s 17th double-double of the season, which hasn’t happened in 25 years.

We out-rebounded them 42-34 with Khamil being the major reason for that discrepancy.

Graduate forward Jane Nwab sank a couple of nice buckets and finished with 7 points, while graduate guard Leilani Kapinus finished with 6 and secured a key steal with 18 seconds left to lock down the game. Leilani was fouled after her steal and sank both free throws.

Just a terrific effort from the Women. This is a highly entertaining team to watch. They get after it on the defensive end as well.

 Coach Ralph is doing a phenomenal job. We are still an 8 seed in the Spokane Regional, according to ESPN Bracketologist Charle Creme, playing No.9 seed South Dakota State. 

Creme’s new bracketology will come out Friday morning, so I’ll let you know where we stand.

Everybody knows South Carolina is tough and decorated as a multiple national champion, but I’ll take each of our players in a 40 minute game and take my chances.

We Definitely have a shot. Should be fun. Coach Ralph said in the postgame that we’re not here to just win one game, we’re here to win the whole thing, and take it deeper than any Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball team has ever taken it in March. Love Coach Ralph’s philosophy.

Will keep you posted. Anchor Down.

Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball

We had a tough one Tuesday with a ridiculously late 9 PM start, losing to Arkansas, 90-77. Arkansas is desperate to make the NCAA Tournament as they are squarely on the bubble and we just didn’t play our best.

We’ve got another test Saturday to close out the regular season @ Georgia with an 11 AM tip on ESPNU.

It’s an important game because it’s the next and final game of the season, and we need the momentum for the SEC Tournament, which starts next  Wednesday, 3/12, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. 

We also want to secure a first round bye and not have to play on Wednesday. We’re 20-10 overall and 8-9 in the SEC and Georgia is 19-11 and 7-10, so we need the victory to clinch the bye and play Thursday.

So, tremendously important game for the team. Need A.J. Hoggard, Devin McGlockton, Chris Manon, Jason Edwards, Tyler Nickel, Tyler Tanner and MJ Collins and company to really ramp it up on Saturday. I expect them to.

Joe “Brackets” Lunardi has us as a 9 seed in the East Regional in his ESPN Bracketology.

Joe has us playing No.8 seed Connecticut in Raleigh.

Joe will come out with his updated bracketology Friday morning, so will let you know  where we stand when the bracket is released.

Thanks a ton, and Go Commodores. Our Men and Women always compete hard. Fun groups to watch.