NASHVILLE — Vanderbilt’s Duke Miles scored 30 points and Tyler Tanner added 19, leading the 22nd-ranked Commodores to a 75-68 win over No. 25 Tennessee in a Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinal matchup on Friday.
Both guards grabbed six rebounds, while Miles added five assists and three steals and Tanner had four assists.
Miles was 11 of 14 from the floor and made 4 of 5 3-pointers for the fourth-seeded Commodores (25-7), who beat their in-state rivals for the second time in seven days to advance to face top seed Florida on Saturday.
Vanderbilt went through a 6:36 field-goal drought late in the game but was helped by being in the bonus with 9:21 left. The Commodores shot 84.6% from the foul line (22 of 26) and made 16 of 18 (88.9%) in the second half.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie paced No. 5 seed Tennessee (22-11) with 21 points and four assists, while Nate Ament and J.P. Estrella added 12 points each.
Ament, who scored 27 against Auburn on Thursday in his return from a two-game absence due to a leg injury, grabbed 11 rebounds but was 1 of 13 from the field.
Tennessee kept it close thanks to a 46-34 rebounding edge, including 23 offensive boards it turned into 24 second-chance points.
Gillespie hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Volunteers a 45-38 lead with 14:51 left, the biggest for either team to that point.
Miles then took over the game for a dizzying spell that spanned 3:03 and included a pair of threes, a coast-to-coast fastbreak layup, a steal and a fastbreak assist to Tanner for his layup and subsequent free throw, a rebound and fastbreak assist to Chandler Bing for his three-point play and a pair of free throws in the midst of all that.
At the end of it all, that put Vanderbilt up 53-48 with 11:21 left.
Neither team led by four during a grind-it-out first half that ended tied at 31.
The Commodores missed their first nine 3-pointers until Miles canned one to give Vandy an 18-16 lead, its biggest of the first half.
Ament scored just one point in 14 first-half minutes for the Volunteers, missing all five field-goal attempts.
Vanderbilt, which also took a road game over Tennessee on Saturday, is 2-1 against its in-state rival this season.
–Chris Lee, Field Level Media
