SEC Tournament: VU advances to semis

by Barca Blog

Recap: [E2] Vanderbilt 78, [E6] Georgia 66
AP --- John Jenkins scored 22 of his career-high 25 points in the second half, and No. 20 Vanderbilt held off Georgia 78-66 Friday night in the Southeastern Conference quarterfinals. Recap

Quotables
VU coach Kevin Stallings on his team's defensive effort:
"We didn't want them to get a beat on us. They're a very good rhythm team. If you let them get into a rhythm, they'll find Thompkins time and time and time again. So one of the reasons we zoned was to try to keep the ball out of his hands. Leslie obviously was unbelievable, but the key to the game for us was Thompkins, and I thought we did a nice job on him."

Jermaine Beal on VU's rebounding effort:
"Our game plan to come in was just to focus on rebounding and to play physical because we know Georgia's a big physical team. And I think we won on the boards. So we got the victory."

Georgia coach Mark Fox on the loss:
"Vanderbilt came very determined to play tonight. I think our team was excited about playing also, but they really out rebounded us in the first half, and that had a significant impact on the ball game. We opened the second half with some competitive fight, got back in it, but we just couldn't."

Georgia's Trey Thompkins on the season:
"You're correct about the fact that we fought all year, but as a team, we expected to win some of those games. We never shortchanged ourselves on the fact that we were inexperienced with Coach's system or we were a young team. We came out to fight just like all our opponents did. We expected to win just like any other team would."

Notes
*Jenkins finished the game 5-of-8 from beyond the arc to tie Shan Foster's and Brad Tinsley’s school record for three-pointers by a freshman in a season (69).

*Vanderbilt outrebounded Georgia 43-32 … Georgia had outrebounded Vanderbilt in both of the previous games … Vanderbilt is now 13-1 when it outrebounds its opponent.

*Andre Walker finished the game with a team-high 10 rebounds and also had four assists, three blocks and two steals.

*Tonight’s win was Vanderbilt’s 24th this season, matching the 1965 team for third-most in school history … The 1993 finished with 28 wins, while the 2008 team finished with 26 wins.

Next Up
Vanderbilt will take on West No. 1 seed Mississippi State in the semifinals Saturday at 2:15 p.m. CT. The Commodores defeated the Bulldogs, 75-72, in their only meeting this season on February 3 in Nashville. For complete coverage of the tournament, go to SECsports.com.