Vanderbilt basketball matches last season's loss total in blowout at Auburn
Tyrin Lawrence missed two free throws. Jaylin Williams had a dunk on the other end. Lawrence turned the ball over.
That sequence was a microcosm of Vanderbilt basketball's Wednesday night game at Auburn, an 81-54 loss. After being blown out in the home game between the two teams earlier this season, the Commodores (5-15, 0-7 SEC) were beat even worse in the road rematch. With Vanderbilt's 15th loss of the season, the Commodores have matched the loss total from 2022-23 with 11 regular-season games remaining. (Two of the 15 losses last season came in the SEC Tournament and NIT.)
After a big game against Tennessee, Lawrence struggled to get things going, as did his backcourt partner Ezra Manjon as the Tigers (17-4, 6-2) locked them up.
If the Vols game, despite a loss, was a step forward for how Vanderbilt was playing, the Auburn game was two steps back as the Commodores fight even to avoid a winless conference season.
"Just got to find a way in the heat of the battle to follow the game plan a little bit closer. We've shown that we can do it for stretches but we hadn't done it for long enough," coach Jerry Stackhouse said on postgame radio. " ... We haven't found a way to put that together consistently yet. Once we do that, and I think we're starting to reach some proof of what we're trying to do. But there's too many times we're coming into timeouts, coming into halftime and postgames talking about the same things and you just got to continue to talk about them and continue to work at them. And hopefully, eventually it turns for us."
Big night for Ven-Allen Lubin
Ven-Allen Lubin had one of his best games of the season, completing a double-double in the first half alone despite going up against top Auburn forwards Johni Broome and Jaylin Williams.
Lubin carried the offensive load that Manjon and Lawrence normally did. He finished the game with 17 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks.
"He had some opportunities around the basket that I know that he can finish," Stackhouse said. "He got a little fatigued there, just started cramping and we got to take him out. I thought that he did a good job. I thought he was great on the boards, really crashed the boards hard, had 10 rebounds a half, I think six of them offensive, a couple of probably his own misses that he had around the basket. I thought he was really active."
Lawrence had 12 points, eight of which came on free throws, with six rebounds. Manjon scored just five points and was 1-for-8 from the field with four rebounds and four assists.
Once again, the bench had little production. Jason Rivera-Torres returned to the bench after starting two games and couldn't provide the same scoring spark he did earlier in conference play. Paul Lewis, who had four points, and Carter Lang, who scored two, provided the only bench scoring. Tasos Kamateros and Rivera-Torres had two rebounds apiece while Lang had one.
Fouls abound
Both sides experienced a frequent whistle. In the first half, Jordan Williams was called for a flagrant foul for Vanderbilt, and officials reviewed for a potential hook-and-hold on Tasos Kamateros before it was ruled a no-call.
The Commodores, particularly Manjon and Lawrence, frequently got to the line on drives to the basket. On the other end, Evan Taylor − despite hitting three 3-pointers in the first half − got in foul trouble early in the second half, sitting large swaths of the period with four fouls and fouled out with 7:06 to go.
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Fewer threes
Vanderbilt attempted fewer 3-pointers than is typical, with half of the attempts coming from Taylor. The Commodores, as they have all season, struggled to put the ball in the basket from deep.
The 2-point shooting didn't go much better, though. Vanderbilt made just three 2-point field goals the whole first half.
Lubin was the only player who made more than two 2-point baskets for the Commodores. Vanderbilt shot just 27% from the field and 24% from the 3-point line.
"Started off the game kind of rough," Stackhouse said. "We had a couple early turnovers. A couple of poor shot selection, and that led to a couple of run outs and put us in a hole right away. Thought we battled a little bit. Guys played hard, but we never really were able to put anything solid together, especially on offense."
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 blown out at Auburn, matches loss total from 2022-23
