Free Throw Struggles Continue For Vanderbilt Despite Season High

The Vanderbilt Commodores set a single-game season-high in made free throws against Davidson, but misses almost prove costly.

Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse continues to preach free throw shooting to his team, and he mentioned that again Monday night during his post-game press conference following the Commodores 76-71 win over Davidson at Memorial Gym. 

Holding a 56-32 with 14 minutes left to play, the Commodores went into a shooting funk that would last the final 13:09 of the game where they were unable to hit a single shot from the floor. 

That lead began to evaporate as the Wildcats outside shooting began to find the mark, hitting 10 of 14 three-point attempts in the final stanza as they tried to mount a comeback.

 In the end, the Commodores free-throw shooting was good enough down the stretch, as the team combined to hit 21 of 29 in the second half and 25 of 37 for the game, but several key misses, including the front ends of one-and-one's made things much more interesting than perhaps they should have been. 

"Coming down the stretch we just have to be better when the game's on the line, we've got to step up and make our free throws, " said Stackhouse. "They don't seem as costly like in the first half when the game's not really in the balance, but when you're coming down the stretch you can miss two back-to-back and the front end of a one-and-one and stuff like that, but we'll be better at that."  

The Commodores return to the court Saturday night as they host SMU in a 7 pm tipoff at Memorial Gym.