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Vanderbilt dumps LSU, scores second straight road upset

Jan 25, 2007 - 8:29 AM BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Ticker) -- Derrick Byars and Vanderbilt have chosen the hard way to keep their season alive - winning on the road.

Byars scored 11 of his 18 points in the first half as the Commodores captured their second straight upset on the road with a 64-53 Southeastern Conference victory over No. 22 Louisiana State.

It was also the third straight victory over a ranked team for Vanderbilt, which outclassed then-No. 9 Alabama, 94-73, on January 17.

After opening its league slate with a 1-2 record following losses at Auburn and Georgia, Vanderbilt (14-6, 4-2 SEC East) captured a second straight win by snapping Kentucky's 10-game home winning streak with a 72-67 triumph on Saturday.

The Commodores continued that stellar play against the Tigers, racing out to an 18-6 lead on a layup by Jermaine Beal with 11:55 remaining. That advantage eventually grew to 23-8.

"I am really happy for our guys," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. "I thought their intensity to start the game was really good."

Byars, who scored 23 points in the win over the Wildcats, shot 4-of-8 from the field with two 3-pointers in the first half as Vanderbilt held a 34-24 advantage at the break.

"They came out with intensity and punched us in the mouth," LSU forward Tasmin Mitchell said. "They were shooting well and had some great transition baskets. They hit us with something we weren't ready for, obviously."

The Tigers (13-6, 2-3 West), who had a 19-game conference home winning streak snapped, attempted to rally, going on an 18-6 spurt to close within 57-51 with 2:16 remaining. However, Shan Foster answered back with a 3-pointer 20 seconds later for the Commodores, who improved to 3-1 against ranked opponents this season.

"We got a little tentative from about the 5 1/2-minute mark," Stallings said. "We told them in the under four (minute) timeout that it is 2:56 to play, and we have to play to win. We didn't come down here to play not to lose. We've got to attack. Shan hit that big three in the corner."

Byars also had 10 rebounds and Foster and Dan Cage both scored 14 points for Vanderbilt, which shot 40 percent (10-of-25) on 3-pointers and held a 42-36 rebounding advantage.

"We are difficult to guard," Byars said. "We knew we had some advantages offensively, and we just took advantage of them. We have shooters out there. We have drivers, just guys that can make plays and smart veterans out there. Everybody just took advantage of what they were given."

"Vanderbilt is the best shooting team in the league," LSU coach John Brady said. "They shoot 41 percent from the field for the game and 40 (percent) from the (3-point line). I was hoping we could hold them to single digits from the three. We held them to 10. They got 15 offensive rebounds, but we got 16 so it's not like the effort of trying wasn't there."

Glen Davis scored 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds for LSU, which shot 32 percent (20-of-62) from the floor, including 5-of-22 from the arc.

It was the fourth straight game for Davis where he failed to reach his season scoring average of 18.2. The reigning SEC Player of the Year is shooting just 37.7 percent (20-of-53) during that span.

"We had a plan," Stallings said. "We were coming from a variety of places, and there were different things that predicated and determined and dictated when we went and when we didn't and who went and who didn't. Our goal was not to let him get into any kind of a rhythm because when he does, you can't guard him."

With Davis held in check, the Tigers once again fell into its season-long problem of struggling to score points. They have failed to score at least 65 points in each of their last 10 games.

"We're just not very calm offensively," Brady said. "We rush. We're in too big a hurry, and we've got to have some guys just make some plays at the right moments of the game and I think we weren't able to do that tonight when we needed to."

Mitchell scored 16 points on 7-of-20 shooting and Garrett Temple added 12 for LSU, which ended up tied in points in the paint (22-22) and second-chance points (14-14) despite its sizeable advantage inside.