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Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings thought his team did a lot well, but not enough to hold off Kentucky as No. 1 UK held on for a 65-57 win here Tuesday night.
“What makes them the best team in the country is they can have guys have off nights, they can have a poor shooting night .. their margin for error is quite substantial,” said Stallings.
Kentucky shot 66 percent from 3-point range, but got only six 3-pointers in the game. Devin Booker, who had been on a shooting tear, missed his only 3-point attempt.
“I would like to think we tried real hard and did good job on Booker. Watching him on film, he is incredible. They just have weapons. That is why they are good,” Stallings said.
“We just kind of came in and played our regular defense. I wasn’t going to come in here and change everything we did. That doesn’t make sense to me. There were certain guys we didn’t want shooting 3’s.”
Aaron Harrison scored all of his 14 points in the second half and went 2-for-3 from 3-point range — and both treys were huge late in the game. He scored seven of UK’s final nine points. Stallings said the three Harrison hit from the corner after a Devin Booker air ball was the key play of the game and “kind of broke us.”
After opening the game with three straight turnovers, Vanderbilt settled down offensively and shot 41.5 percent for the game and went 7-for-18 from 3-point range. Freshman guard Riley LaChance was 6-for-8 from the field and 3-for-4 from 3-point range to score 16 po ints and freshman Matthe Fisher-Davis was 4-for-7 from 3-point range and had 13 points.
Fisher-Davis said UK’s size did not bother the Commodores.
“Honestly, we have three 7-footers down there as well, so it didn’t really matter,” Fisher-Davis said. “We really fought tonight. We knew they were a great offensive rebounding team but they also give up a lot of rebounds to their opponents. We really hit the glass hard. Fought down low and that was it.”
Riley LaChance said the Commodores felt they could win.
“I don’t think we were scared to come in here and play. We came in here fired up,” he said.
Stallings said Monday that UK’s defense was as good as he’s seen. Karl-Anthony Towns had a career-high seven blocked shots for UK and Marcus Lee had two. Overall, UK blocked 11 shots. However, Stallings said early in the game it was “more us playing like we were temporarily outside of our minds than it was anything they were doing defensively.”
Later Vanderbilt was able to score in transition at times.
“As good as it (Kentucky’s defense) is, you need to try and beat it before they get set up as far as I’m concerned. Now, I lost, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that felt like (that was) as good a chance as any for us, to get down there and try to beat them before they got set,” Stallings said.
Stallings also had a parting message for UK fans.
“I am sure this will be a very entertaining season for all who like the Big Blue,” Stallings said.
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