SEC Basketball Tournament updates: Vanderbilt rallies to stun Alabama
Updates from the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament at Amalie Arena in Tampa.
Vanderbilt comeback sinks Tide
Down 51-36 with 14:08 remaining, No. 11 seed Vanderbilt roared back to knock off No. 6 seed Alabama 82-76 in the final game Thursday at the SEC Tournament at Amalie Arena.
Scotty Pippen scored 26 points and Myles Stute added 18, including a clutch three-pointer with 1:20 left as Jerry Stackhouse’s team improved to 17-15. The Commodores will play No. 3-seed Kentucky in a quarterfinal matchup on Friday night. Alabama fell to 19-13.
The Crimson Tide led 38-28 at the half and extended the lead to 15 points on a fast break basket by Keon Ellis. But Vandy scored the next eight points. And after starting the game just 1-of-13 from the floor, Pippen finally got some shots to drop. He ended up 5-of-19 from the field, but made 15 of 21 free throws. As a team, Vandy was 31-of-45 at the foul line.
Alabama got 21 points from Jaden Shackelford and 13 from Javon Quinerly, but Nate Oats’ guard battled foul trouble in the second half. Both eventually fouled out.
Mississippi State steamrolls South Carolina
Holding South Carolina to just 12.9 percent shooting in the second half, No. 10 seed Mississippi State rolled over the seventh-seeded Gamecocks 73-51 in the first game of the Thursday night session.
Now 18-14, the Bulldogs will play No. 2 seed Tennessee at 6 p.m. on Friday. After making just four of 31 shots in the second half, South Carolina fell to 18-13.
Tolu Smith scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Mississippi State. Iverson Molinar added 19 points and Andersson Garcia collected 14 rebounds for the Bulldogs. Eric Stevenson led South Carolina with 18 points. The Gamecocks were outscored 37-17 the second half and shot just 28.3 percent for the game.
Georgia fires Tom Crean
To no one’s surprise, Georgia has officially fired head basketball coach Tom Crean after four seasons.
Crean’s Bulldogs were beaten 86-51 by Vanderbilt in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday night. That ended Georgia’s season at 6-26. The Bulldogs were 1-17 in the conference. Crean went 47-75 in Athens with an SEC record of 15-57.
Much of the speculation concerning Crean’s replacement has centered on former Georgia star Jonas Hayes, now associate head coach at Xavier.
Fast start propels LSU past Missouri
No. 5 seed LSU wasted little time jumping all over No. 12 Missouri, building a 25-point lead in the first half on the way to a 76-68 victory in the second game of the Thursday afternoon session.
Having trounced Mizzou 75-55 in the regular season, LSU produced more of the same Thursday. The Tigers roared to a 30-8 lead with 8:42 left in the first half, then extended the advantage to 34-9 at the 4:51 mark. Will Wade’s held a 39-23 lead at the half.
Cuonzo Martin’s Tigers did try to make a game of it, outscoring LSU 45-37 in the second half. Missouri never got closer than the final score, however. Its season ends at 12-21. Now 22-10, LSU will play No. 4 seed Arkansas at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Arkansas swept LSU 65-58 and 77-76 during the regular season.
Tari Eason paced LSU with 19 points on Thursday. Darius Days added 16 points and seven rebounds. Freshman guard Brandon Murray dished nine assists. DaJuan Murray led Missouri with 19 points.
Texas A&M survives to beat Florida in overtime
In what could be construed as an NCAA Tournament field elimination game, Texas A&M’s Hassan Diarra buried a three-pointer with 0.4 seconds left in overtime to give the Aggies an 83-80 win over Florida in the first game of the second round of the SEC Tournament.
The No. 9 seed in the tournament, the Aggies improved to 21-11 overall and will play No. 1 seed Auburn on Friday. Likely to have slipped off the NCAA bubble, Florida fell to 19-13.
They did so the hard way. Texas A&M opened the game by hitting eight of its first 10 shots and 11 of its first 17 on the way to a 26-10 lead over Mike White’s club. Florida cut the deficit to eight (33-25) at the half, only to see Texas A&M extend the advantage to 16 points at 54-38 with 10:43 left.
Florida didn’t quit, however. Down 65-53 with 3:17 remaining, the Gators got late-game heroics from Kowacie Reeves, including a three-pointer with 17.5 seconds left to tie the game at 70 and send it into overtime.
Florida held an 80-78 lead with 48 seconds left, when A&M was ruled to have committed a turnover on an in-bounds play. The call was overturned however with the Gators called for a foul at the 38.4-second mark. The Aggies’ Tyrece Radford made both free throws to tie the game at 80.
Florida’s Phlanderous Fleming’s three-point try got stuck between the rim, resulting in A&M’s possession on a held ball. Diarra then made the contested three to advance the Aggies.
Henry Coleman led the Aggies with 22 points and eight rebounds. Reeves led Florida with 21 points. Colin Castleton scored 15 for the Gators, who committed 18 turnovers.
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 3:09 PM.
