Crump Breaks Commodore Hearts With Three at Buzzer
NASHVILLE - It was a beautiful night of basketball with a disastrous ending for the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Tyree Crump hit a 35-foot three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Georgia Bulldogs an 80-78 victory at Memorial Gym, after Vanderbilt watched a five-point lead crumble in the final 22 seconds.
The two teams scorched the nets, as Vanderbilt shot 57.4 percent and the Bulldogs 53.6, and both combined for 16 threes and a 44 percent percentage from the deep perimeter. Vandebrilt fell to 1-13 in the league and 9-18 overall, while the Bulldogs moved to 14-10 for the season and 4-10 in SEC play.
“I thought we did enough, just some bad breaks that didn’t go our way,” said Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse. “I thought they played extremely hard all game and got contributions from everybody on the roster tonight. It just wasn’t in the cards for us, and we have to continue to work on finishing games a little stronger.
“Nobody wants to miss shots and at the end they heave up a 30-foot shot to beat us. We just have to shake their hands and move on.”
With a 78-73 edge inside the final 30 seconds, the Commodores surrendered an uncontested layup by Sahvir Wheeler, missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity by Saben Lee, turned it over on the offensive rebound by Braelee Albert, and then missed two free throws by Scotty Pippen Jr.
The final result eventually landed in the hands of Crump, who crossed center court and swished the long-distance three for the win. Vanderbilt had fouls to give, but five of Georgia’s last seven points were clean. Georgia closed to 78-77 in the final seconds on a blocking foul plus free throws to set up the final sequence.
Before Wheeler was fouled, a controversial call ignited the Vanderbilt crowd. Braelee Albert grabbed the offensive rebound off the Lee miss with 12 seconds left and was ruled stepping on the baseline out of bounds to turn it over. Wheeler raced to the basket, drew the foul and made both shots.
“Clearly it shows he’s still inbounds, and it’s just a phantom call to call it the other way,” Stackhouse said. “Those are just things for whatever reason we have not have been able to avoid. We have to keep fighting and keep trying to build and keep the guys confidence. This was a tough one.”
Photo captured from Twitter
Vanderbilt struggled to inbound and Lee was trapped in the corner and used the final timeout. Then Dylan Disu tossed in to Pippen, who was fouled with 5.1 seconds and could not convert.
“I had a good game, but the fouls shots stand out the most,” Pippen said. “That’s something I am going to remember forever. I learned a lot this freshman year, but that’s what is going to stick with me the most, how hard we fought and just me coming up short.”
Lee scored a career-high 34 points, including 22 in the first half. Pippen was one shy of his career high and ended the game with 20 points, and Maxwell Evans heated up to score 10.
What hurt, however, was Lee’s miss was the lone mistake in a near perfect night. He was 10-for-10 from the line when he missed, and Pippen was 3-for-4 entering the final two shots. Vanderbilt was 17-of-25 overall at the charity stripe.
Lee went to the line after Vanderbilt milked the clock and had a bounce pass to Lee from Disu, and was fouled.
“Definitely at the end, it’s a tough break but there’s a lot of things going up to it,” Lee said. “I missed the front end of a 1-and-1, or we would not have been in that situation. You can take it how you want, but I felt like there was a lot as a team and me personally that we could have done to get a different result.”
Vanderbilt led for the majority of the game, including 40-32 at the half when walk-on Drew Weikert made a steal and layup at the buzzer for an eight-point lead. With the majority of the starters nursing two fouls and Matthew Moyer, Clevon Brown and Aaron Nesmith all out with injuries, Vandy turned to a short bench to get them through the final minutes of the first half.
The walk-ons were impressive, including a hustle play by Jon Jossell with a 30-26 lead to fight Mike Peake for a rebound and get the possession call.
“I trust our guys. The plan is to run the offense and at the end of the set it’s going to get back into our best player’s hands,” Stackhouse explained. “Jossell got to the ball, Isaiah (Rice) ran the offense for us and let us get Saben off the ball at times, and then Drew got the steal.”
Twice, Georgia fought back from an 11-point deficit. The Commodores led 20-9 in the first half when the Bulldogs ripped off eight straight, then Anthony Edwards capped off a 12-0 run midway through the second half to erase a 51-40 margin and give Georgia a 52-51 advantage.
Pippen Jr. answered with a deep three from the left wing to put Vanderbilt back on top at 54-52, a lead that remained until the final play. Vandy extended the lead again to seven with 4:27 left when Pippen floated an alley-oop pass for a Lee dunk.
Edwards had 19 points and five rebounds for Georgia and fouled out. Jordan Harris scored 17 and Wheeler 11.
Vanderbilt led for 35:38 of the game, scored 20 points off 13 Georgia turnovers, and scored on 57 percent of its possessions.
SCORING
Georgia (80) – Edwards 19, Harris 17, Wheeler 11, Camara 8, Hammonds 8, Crump 8, Fagan 6, Gresham Jr. 3.
Vanderbilt (78) – Lee 34, Pippen 20, Evans 10, Wright 6, Disu 3, Albert 3, Weikert 2.
NEXT UP
Vanderbilt welcomes Missouri (13-14, 5-9) to Nashville on Wednesday at 8 p.m. on ESPNU. Georgia travels to South Carolina (16-11, 8-6) on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. EST on the SEC Network.
SERIES
Vanderbilt leads the all-time series, 92-54 and 49-13 at Memorial Gym.
NOTES
Saben Lee is now the 32 nd all-time leading scorer in Vanderbilt history with 1,227 points, passing Joe Ford, Jim Henry, Al Rochelle and Thorpe Weber. Matthew Fisher-Davis has 1,219 and Brad Tinsley is at 1,252.
Before the game, Vanderbilt dedicated a portion of 25 th Avenue South as Perry Wallace Way, to honor the late Commodore great, who broke the color barrier in the Southeastern Conference in 1967. A commemorative replica of the road sign was presented to his widow, Karen, and daughter Gabby, by interim athletic director Candice Story Lee at halftime.
