'Dores grab a victory

by Barca Blog

Vanderbilt's size and athleticism proved to be too much for South Carolina Saturday night in Columbia.

The Commodores took advantage of their obvious mismatch with the Gamecocks, whose tallest player is listed at 6'9, by dominating the rebounding margin (39-24) to stay undefeated in conference play with a 89-79 victory.

"I thought the difference in the game was our play on the backboards," head coach Kevin Stallings pointed out. "We got more of our misses than they did for the game and that's a very unusual thing."

Vanderbilt rarely came up empty on the offensive end. Not only did the 'Dores shoot 61 percent for the game, they also managed to get 24 second-chance points by controlling the boards.

Vanderbilt ended up securing 13 offensive rebounds on the night while South Carolina had just 10 defensive rebounds. Breaking it down even further, in the second half, VU had eight offensive boards off its 11 missed shots and converted them into 15 points.

Those are just crazy stats when you think about it.

And can you guess who the top rebounder was for the Gamecocks?

5'9 guard Devan Downey -- the smallest guy on the court -- with five.