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Jenkins leads No. 7 Vanderbilt past Oregon

Nov 12, 2011 - 7:26 AM Nashville, TN (Sports Network) - John Jenkins scored 24 points and hit a career-high seven three pointers, as the seventh-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores earned a season-opening, 78-64 victory over the Oregon Ducks.

Jeffery Taylor finished with a double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Brad Tinsley added 13 points for the Commodores (1-0), who began the season with their highest ranking since being ranked fifth in 1965.

Tony Woods paced the Ducks (0-1) with 12 points, while E.J. Singler and Brett Kingma both finished with 10 points. Johnathan Loyd handed out eight assists.

Oregon was locked in from the field in the early going, hitting 52.4 of its first-half-shots, including 3-of-7 three pointers.

Despite the hot start, the Ducks trailed 35-29 at the half due to poor ball control.

"We didn't do what we needed to do to win the game," said Kingma. "I think we hurt ourselves with turnovers."

The Commodores shot just 34.3 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes, but scored 10 points off of 10 Oregon turnovers to secure the advantage.

Jenkins wasn't particularly sharp during that span, but he delivered after the break.

"I got a little first game jitters," said Jenkins. "As soon as we started moving the ball and moving around we got used to it and shots started falling."

The Commodores, who are without starting center Festus Ezeli for up to eight weeks due to an injured right knee, began the second half on a 9-0 run.

"It's obviously significant for us not to have [Ezeli], but we don't have him and we won't for a while," said Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings. "We have to play better without him and make up for him."

Taylor hit a jumper and was good on a layup during the surge, while Jenkins nailed a three, as the Commodores grabbed a 44-29 lead.

The Ducks hung around, though, and Kingma hit a jumper with just over five minutes left to make it a 62-57 game.

But Jenkins' three with under four minutes put the Commodores up 70-57 and they were not threatened the rest of the way.

Game Notes

Vanderbilt improved to 5-2 against Oregon in the all-time series and has won all four home meetings...The Commodores are looking to advance to the NCAA tournament this season for the third consecutive year for the first time in program history.