The Commodores Get Chomped By The Gators in Memorial 61-55

The Vanderbilt Commodores drop a home game to the Florida Gators with a score of 61-55.

The Vanderbilt Commodores played host to the Florida Gators inside of Memorial Gymnasium. Vanderbilt came into this contest 8 and 12 on the season looking for their first conference win. Florida entered 12 and 8 on the season with four wins in the conference.

 The Commodores drew first blood with an opening Maxwell Evans three-point foul. Evans would hit all three of the free throws. 

Early in the first half, Vanderbilt could not find their rhythm with a few turnovers on poor passing. At the 14:48 minute, Vanderbilt would trail 10 to four to Florida.

Vanderbilt would not get back into the score sheet for five minutes and 10 seconds until a Matthew Moyer layup made the score 10 to 5 in the 14th minute. 

With 7:59 the Commodores trailed the Gators 17 - 11 both teams were having trouble finding the bottom of the net. It wasn't until the third minute that the Commodores started to gain momentum when Ejike Obinna slammed home a dunk to make it a 21 - 18 Florida lead.

At halftime, Vanderbilt trailed the Gators 26 - 21. Vandy's' leading scorer at the half was a three-way tie between Saben Lee, Matthew Moyer, and Jordan Wright with five points. Vanderbilt did a good job of limiting Florida's leading scorer Kerry Blackshear Jr. to only five points in the first half. 

Florida started the second half by finding the bottom of the net with much success, extending its score to 37 - 25 over the Commodores. 

With 13:29 left in the second half Vanderbilt moved within 10 points from a Scottie Pippen Jr. layup. 

The outside shooting of the Gators was really showcased in the second half as they went 3 of 3 by the tenth minute and added on to their lead with a Noah Locke triple to go up 48 - 31 over the Commodores.

With 3:21 left in the second half, the Commodores moved within six on back to back Maxwell Evans triples. 

With 21.3 seconds on the clock, Vanderbilt trailed 58 - 53 and there was a review for an out of bounds ball that was shown to be off the foot of Dylan Disu.

The game finished with the Vanderbilt Commodores falling to the Florida Gators in a score of 61 to 55. Vandy's' leading score was Scottie Pippen Jr. (15) and the Gators leading scorer was Keyontae Johnson (20).

The Commodore fall to 8 and 13, 0 and 8 in conference play

The Gators move to 13 and 8, 5 and 3 in conference play.

Vanderbilt will move on to Feb. 5th where they will try to pick up their first conference win and will host LSU in Memorial Gymnasium at 8 pm.