Dry Spell In The Desert Dooms Vanderbilt in 78-70 Loss To Loyola-Chicago

The Vanderbilt Commodores were without starting center Clevon Brown as they paid a visit to Phoenix to take on Loyola-Chicago. The Commodores would miss his inside presence as the Ramblers muscled their way inside en route to a 78-70 win.

Vanderbilt broke ontop early and lead through the midway point of the first half, but a 3:30 scoring drought allowed the Ramblers to take their first lead on back-to-back dunks from Tate Hall. It was part of a 13-4 run by Loyola.

Loyola would take a 35-31 advantage to the half, lead by the 10 first-half points from Cameron Krutwig. Marquise Kennedy finished the first half with 8 points while Hall finished the frame with 5 points.

Aaron Nesmith paced the Commodores with 11 while Scottie Pippen Jr. added 9 and Saben Lee netted 7 points, four coming on two dunks as he played in front of a large contingent of family and friends in his hometown.

Loyola managed 54% shooting in the first half, knocking down 15 of 28 from the floor while once again, the Commodores struggled, going 10 of 23 for 43% through the first twenty minutes of action.

The first half one again saw the Commodores from the free-throw stripe, connecting on just 8 of 14 attempts, good for 54 percent. As bad as the Commodores were from the stripe, Loyola was even worse, hitting just 3 of 8 for 34 percent.

Loyola also controlled the paint, outscoring the Commodores 26-10 in the first half

The second half was controlled by Loyola as they lead through the first 10:50 before Nesmith connected from long range to tie the game at 48-48.

Immediately after it was the Ramblers who reeled off back-to-back baskets to retake the advantage. Vanderbilt would answer as Ejike Obinna's two-handed dunk knotted the game ar 52-52 just two minutes later.

From there, the Ramblers would take control, connection on their next four shots as they outscored the Commodores 10-2 before a Vanderbilt timeout with 4:34 remaining in the game.

The Commodores would continue to battle, cutting the Ramblers lead to 67-61 with 2:17 left to play.

Loyola would finish the game hitting all eight of their shots in the final 2:17 while the Commodores went 5 of 7 down the stretch from the floor.

However, in the end, overall cold shooting from the field in the final minutes, from the free-throw line throughout and being dominated in the paint doomed the Commodores as they finished the night shooting just 47% from the floor, connecting on 25 of 53 shots. The free-throw stripe was only slightly better as Vanderbilt hit on 13 of their 22 attempts, good for 53 percent.

Krutwig led the Ramblers, finishing the game with a triple-double, netting 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Hall finished with 16, with 11 coming in the second half while Kennedy finished the night with 11 points

The 6'9" 255-pound junior was a force inside for the Ramblers as they dominated the paint, outscoring Vanderbilt 46-32 inside.

Once again Nesmith led all Commodores in scoring with 23 while Lee netted 18 and Pippen Jr. finished the game with 13 points.

Loyola improved to 8-4 on the season while Vanderbilt slipped to 6-4 and return to action this Saturday as they host UNC-Wilmington at Memorial Gym in a 7 pm tipoff.

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