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Vols top Vandy in SEC action

Feb 23, 2011 - 5:30 AM Nashville, TN (Sports Network) - Scotty Hopson scored 12 of his 19 points in the second half, as the Tennessee Volunteers rallied past the 18th-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores, 60-51.

Melvin Goins added 15 points for the Volunteers (17-11, 7-6 SEC), who had lost four of five coming in. Tobias Harris donated 10 points and 11 rebounds.

"It's a great win. Being a senior and being able to come into this environment and stealing a win on their home court, it's a big time game for us," Goins said. "I didn't have as many assists as I would have liked to, but I took what the defense gave me today and I tried to come up big for my team. "

John Jenkins and Festus Ezeli each finished with 11 points for the Commodores (20-7, 8-5), who had a five-game winning streak snapped. Steve Tchiengang tallied 10 points off the bench.

Jeffery Taylor's layup gave Vanderbilt a 51-49 edge with five minutes to play, but the Commodores failed to score the rest of the way.

Hopson then took over for Tennessee, making six straight free throws to give the visitors a 55-51 margin. Vanderbilt turned the ball over twice during that span.

The Commodores' fate was sealed after Lance Goulbourne missed a pair of free throws with one minute remaining. Harris followed with three foul shots of his own to extend Tennessee's lead to 58-51 with 35.6 seconds to go.

"I thought we got out-toughed and out-physicalled," Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings said. "I thought we had guys who were trying to be individual players and not team players... [Tennessee] played well defensively, but we somewhat made it easy for them by getting away from what we wanted to do. We had nine fouls on our five-man in the second half - that's ridiculous."

Vanderbilt took a 31-27 edge into the locker room following a back-and-forth first half.

The Commodores started the second half on an 11-4 run to create some distance. Ezeli capped the burst with a slam to make it a 42-31 game with 13 minutes to play.

Tennessee, though, chipped away at its deficit and tied things up with an 8-1 flurry. Hopson's layup made it 49-49 with 5 1/2 minutes remaining.

Game Notes

Tennessee also beat Vanderbilt by a 67-64 final back in January, and the Vols own a 110-69 series lead over the Commodores...Vanderbilt fell to 14-2 at home this season...The Commodores turned the ball over 16 times.