Vanderbilt Commodores Blow Out Arkansas Razorbacks to Even SEC Record
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The Vanderbilt Commodores cruised to victory on Thursday night, taking the Arkansas Razorbacks down by a score of 101-60.
With the win, the Commodores improve to 16-4 overall and move back to a .500 record in SEC play with a 3-3 record.
After a rocky stretch to start the conference season, head coach Shea Ralph has her squad playing as good and as confident of basketball as they have during her tenure at Vanderbilt.
As the Commodores continue to inch back into the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2014, a blowout win like this will surely push them closer.
It was all Vanderbilt from the opening whistle. The result didn't come as a complete surprise. But this level of dominance over an SEC school might be shocking to some.
The Razorbacks defense had no answers for what the Commodores were doing on offense. As a team, Vanderbilt shot 56.5% from the field and 52% from beyond the arc.
Another key stat in this one was the difference in taking advantage of turnovers. The Commodores forced 25 turnovers and score 40 points off of them, while Arkansas scored just 13 points off the 14 Vanderbilt turnovers.
Superstar freshman Commodores guard Mikayla Blakes continued her stellar play with a team-high 24 points in just 27 minutes on the court.
Blakes was 4-for-6 from the 3-point line in the game. Her shooting has been a massive difference maker for this squad. She is just one reason that this team has a better chance to make a deeper run than just the first round of the NCAA Tournament this time around.
Having a player like her can have a team competitive in any single game during the season.
This will continue to help out their tournament case. After their thrilling victory over the Tennessee Volunteers on Sunday, ESPN's Women's Bracketolgy moved the Commodores to a seven-seed.
That may seem low for a team that had a 15-4 record at the time. But Vandy has struggled against the tough part of its schedule. They will need to continue to win SEC games if they want to improve their resume.
Right now, Vanderbilt has four more games to play against ranked teams and three of them happen to be on the road. Their one home game is against the South Carolina Gamecocks, whom the Commodores haven't beaten in 16 meetings.
The Commodores' next game will be on Sunday, Jan. 26 against the No. 19 Alabama Crimson Tide.
Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders