Poor defense plagues Vanderbilt basketball in loss to Boston College in ACC/SEC Challenge
The questions surrounding Jerry Stackhouse's tenure only got louder Wednesday night as Vanderbilt basketball was embarrassed by Boston College in the ACC/SEC Challenge, 80-62.
Back in Memorial Gymnasium against a team picked to finish 12th of 15 ACC teams, it seemed like a perfect opportunity for the Commodores to get back on track. Instead, they never gained momentum as Boston College led wire to wire.
In the first game with both Tyrin Lawrence and Ezra Manjon available, Manjon played well in his return from an ankle injury with a team-high 16 points, but Lawrence was quiet. Colin Smith remained unavailable due to a concussion.
Boston College (5-2) shot better than 50% from the field and made half of its 3-pointers, while the Commodores (3-4) were under 40% in both.
Dreadful defense
Vanderbilt's defense has struggled this season as a whole, rating as the second-worst among high-major teams going into the game, according to KenPom.
But Boston College got to the rim at will and also shot well from 3. Seven-footer Quinten Post and Claudell Harris were the top players for the Eagles with 24 and 22 points respectively, and without anyone taller than 6-9, the Commodores had no answers for Post.
Bench production
Vanderbilt got very little out of its bench in the first half. Without Smith, Vanderbilt put Jordan Williams in its starting lineup. He did not play well, but neither did any of his replacements. JQ Roberts, Paul Lewis and Isaiah West saw more minutes than Williams, though none a full starter's workload.
In the second half, Stackhouse made a tweak and began playing Jason Rivera-Torres, Carter Lang and Tasos Kamateros more. They played relatively well, with Rivera-Torres doing so after not seeing any minutes in the first half. He finished with 11 points, second-most on the team. Lang and Kamateros tied for third with eight points apiece.
Ven-Allen Lubin led the team with six rebounds.
Losing the turnover battle
Through the past two seasons, Vanderbilt has been plagued by an inability to force turnovers. Although the Commodores didn't turn the ball over an inordinate number of times, they still lost the battle because they failed to force giveaways.
Boston College turned the ball over just eight times, while Vanderbilt turned it over 10 times.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt basketball loses to Boston College in ACC/SEC Challenge
