TAMPA, Fla. – The first game of the second round of the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament set a high bar for the rest of the day’s action at Amalie Arena, with Texas A&M surviving an overtime clash with Florida.
The nightcap measured up – particularly for fans of the Vanderbilt Commodores, who provided the first upset of this year’s tourney.
Scotty Pippen Jr. scored 26 points, Myles Stute added 18 and 11th-seeded Vanderbilt rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit to beat sixth-seeded Alabama 82-76 late Thursday, ending the Crimson Tide’s bid to repeat as tournament champions.
The Tide (19-13) beat Vanderbilt 74-72 on Feb. 22 in Nashville in the teams’ lone regular-season meeting, but after the Commodores routed 14th-seeded Georgia on Wednesday night in the first round, Pippen declared Alabama was “a very beatable team a team we wanted to play.”
With his famous father in the stands Thursday, he proved himself right, helping send the Commodores (17-15) into Friday’s quarterfinals against third-seeded and fifth-ranked Kentucky (25-6).