Freshman Commodores Becomes Heros in LSU win

Jordan Wright finished with a career-high 11 points in Vanderbilt's 99-90 upset of #18 LSU, and the Commodores needed every single one of them.

Nashville, Tn.- There were many heroes in Wednesday night's record ending upset win over #18 LSU at Memorial Gym, but one of the most unsung Commodores proved to be as big a difference-maker in the end as anyone.  

Freshman Jordan Wright, a native of Baton Rouge stepped up in the final ten minutes and toss home nine of his career-high eleven points. 

During a 2:05 stretch from the 9:57 mark till the 7:52 mark of the second half, Wright put the Commodores on his back, hitting three free-throws and back to back layups in a 7-2 Commodores run that spanned a scoring drought by both Saben Lee and Maxwell Evans.

Had Evans not taken over that stretch of the game, who knows what might have happened as the Tigers had trimmed the Commodores lead to 74-72 before the young freshman powered Vanderbilt on a 7-2 run to stretch the lead to 80-74. 

From there Wright would add one more field goal the rest of the way, but fellow freshman Scottie Pippen Jr. was set to take over. 

Over the final 5:17, it was Pippen Jr. and the return of Saben Lee that drove the Commodores across the finish line.    

Already having 26 points in the game, Lee would connect on three consecutive driving layups and added a free-throw in the closing three minutes.      

However, if not for the finishing punch from Pippen Jr. things could have gone another way. 

The final 1:08 belonged to Pippen Jr. who stuck a dagger into the Tigers with a deep three-pointer and added two free-throws sandwiched around a Matthew Moyer free-throw as the Commodores closed out the win with a 7-2 run. 

Pippen Jr. finished the night with 13 points, eleven coming in the second half and nine of those in the final 5:17 as the basketball prodigy cemented his moment in the hearts of the Commodore faithful who watched as he and Wright took a big step forward in their growth as players. 

Of course, it goes without saying that without the heroics of both Lee and Evans, who became the first pair of teammates since Kentucky's Patrick Patterson and Jodie Meeks to drop 30 or more points apiece in a single game back in 2008, the Commodores would have not been in position for the two freshmen to have their moments.

In the end, it was a total team effort as Vanderbilt got contributions from every single one of its players who participated in one way or another.   

It was a night to remember in Memorial as at least for that night, the magic proved it had not left for good.