Vanderbilt basketball's season slipped away in March Madness with painful end | Estes
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Rapid reaction from fifth-seeded Vanderbilt’s 74-72 loss to No. 4 seed Nebraska in a second-round Men's NCAA Tournament game at Paycom Center:
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A painful end to a wonderful season
Badly outnumbered against a hostile crowd, Vanderbilt played hard enough to hang all night with a difficult opponent in a very difficult atmosphere. It just didn’t quite shoot well enough – from the perimeter or the foul line – to win in the end.
Nebraska’s Braden Frager drove for the go-ahead basket with 2.2 seconds remaining after Chandler Bing missed with the shot clock expiring on the other end. Tyler Tanner’s desperate heave at the buzzer rimmed out.
It sent fourth-seeded Nebraska (28-6) to the Sweet 16 and made a painful finish to a wonderful season for No. 5 seed Vanderbilt (27-9).
How it got away
When they look back on this one, they’ll remember Tyler Tanner’s 27 points. They’ll remember the tenacity with which the Commodores rallied to take their first lead of the evening with 8:22 to play and nearly pull this off in the final moments.
But they’ll also remember an uncharacteristic 11-for-19 performance for Vanderbilt at the foul line, when that has been a Commdores strength this season.
They’ll also remember another slow start. The Commodores fell behind 8-0 in the game’s first three minutes. They missed their first eight 3-pointers. They were only 3-of-15 (20%) from long range in the opening half. It was another slow start for Vanderbilt, same as in the first-round win over McNeese.
The Cornhuskers, meanwhile, didn’t have that problem early. They shot a sizzling 6-of-10 from 3-point range in the first half and 15-of-25 from the field (60% for both). Given that discrepancy, Vanderbilt was fortunate to only be down 39-32 at intermission.
Different story in the second half, but it just wasn’t quite enough.
Tyler Tanner was sensational
What a night this was for Commodores guard Tyler Tanner. He deserved much of the credit at halftime for his team still being in this game after such a shaky opening half offensively against a tough Nebraska defense.
Tanner had 15 of his 27 points in the first half. He also made key defensive plays, including a steal and runout in which the 6-foot Tanner dunked on Nebraska’s 6-foot-10 forward Rienk Mast on the other end.
Tanner, who has been mentioned in mock drafts, has said that he will consider NBA options after this season. If this was his final performance for Vanderbilt, it would be a memorable one.
Duke Miles didn’t seem himself
After the McNeese game, Vandy’s Duke Miles had his left hand checked, saying later that he jammed it.
While it wasn’t serious enough to sideline Miles, he started this second-round game with his thumb wrapped (though he appeared to shed that at some point), and he wasn’t his usual self in terms of scoring. He had six assists, but he was 2-for-10 from the field, missing his first six shots.
The crowd was a factor
There’s just no getting around how many Nebraska fans were at this game, how loud it was in this arena and how much of a disadvantage that was for Vanderbilt. As expected, this was every bit a road game for the Commodores and felt like it from start to finish, with the crowd hanging intently on every bucket and every call by the referees.
That’s no excuse. It’s just the truth. Credit Nebraska’s fan base for a being a sixth man and helping swing this game in the Big Red’s favor.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt basketball season ends painfully in March Madness 2nd round