NASHVILLE – Tennessee will look back at its latest road loss and point to a pair of key stretches as the turning points.
Vanderbilt blew open a close game with a big run to close the first half and quelled any hopes the Volunteers had of a remarkable comeback with 15 unanswered points midway through the second half in a 86-69 win at Memorial Gym on Tuesday night.
The Commodores completed the season sweep of Tennessee (13-17, 6-11 SEC), which has now three games in a row.
Tennessee without leading scorer Kevin Punter Jr. (foot) for the third straight game, while Robert Hubbs III (knee) sat out a second game in a row.
The undermanned Vols were no match for Vanderbilt (19-11, 11-6), which now has won six of seven games and remains in the hunt for a share of the SEC regular-season title.
Freshman Shembari Phillips scored a career-high 23 points, Armani Moore added 13 and freshman Admiral Schofield chipped in a dozen more.
Wade Baldwin IV led Vanderbilt with 17 points, six rebounds and seven assists, and the Commodores had three other players score at least 10 points.
There were five ties and five lead changes in the opening 12 minutes, during which Tennessee led for more than four minutes.
Detrick Mostella’s 3 made it 16-15 at the 7:47 mark.
From that point on, though, it was all Vanderbilt.
The Commodores outscored the visitors 28-8 in the final seven-plus minutes of the first half and scored seven unanswered points in the final 42 seconds of it to take a commanding 43-24 lead into halftime.
Vanderbilt led by 21 points in a 14-point win in Knoxville in January.
The ‘Dores made 10 3-pointers in the first half of that romp, but they held scoring advantages of 20-8 in the paint and 10-2 at the free-throw line in the first half of the rematch.
After making just four of their first 16 shots, the ‘Dores made 11 of their final 17 while Tennessee, which started 8-of-15 from the field before making just 2-of-10 to close the half, fell apart at both ends.
Admiral Schofield scored two early baskets, but he picked up his third foul at the9:43 mark, and Devon Baulkman joined him in the three-foul club with 5:57 left before halftime.
Tennessee played with more aggression and energy in the second half and trimmed a 21-point lead down to 10 on Phillips’s 3 at the 11:39 mark, but Vanderbilt put the game away with a 15-0 run.
The Vols turned the ball over four times in five possessions during Vanderbilt’s run, which Baldwin capped with a pair of free throws that made it 74-49 with 7:14left.
With just one timeout left, Rick Barnes elected not to call one during Vanderbilt’s run.
Tennessee closes the regular season at home against Ole Miss on Saturday.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.