Vanderbilt took control early in an easy 76-43 win over visiting Morehead State on Saturday evening in Nashville.

Tyrin Lawrence led Vanderbilt (2-2) in scoring with 17 points, with 13 coming in the first half. Liam Robbins put up nine points and seven rebounds.

Alex Gross led Morehead State (2-3) in scoring with 14 before fouling out, while Drew Thelwell added 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Eagles shot a miserable 27 percent from the field.

Mark Freeman — Morehead State’s leading scorer at 12.3 points coming in — managed three points on 1-of-7 shooting. Freeman went down with 7:21 left after apparently rolling his left ankle.

Morehead led briefly at 2-0, but never again. The Commodores led by 25 at half and quickly made it 29 with Quentin Millora-Brown’s layup and foul shot with 18:16 remaining.

Vandy went heavily to the bench the rest of the night, with freshman Malik Dia canning a corner 3 to push the lead to 30 for the first time with 12:15 left. Dia finished with nine points.

The Eagles started the game 3 of 6 from the field and went 3 of 24 the rest of the period.

The Commodores opened their first double-digit lead with 11:35 left in the first half on Robbins’ layup that made it 17-6.

Vandy stretched it to 24-8 on a Lawrence 3 followed by his lay-up with 8:18 left. Lawrence provided the Commodores with their first 20-point advantage at 31-11 with a jumper in the paint with 4:07 left.

The lead was 38-13 at the break, with the Commodores shooting 51.5 percent in the half while turning it over just five times.

Vandy played without freshman Paul Lewis, who missed the contest due to illness.

Vandy has won consecutive games, including Tuesday’s overtime win at Temple, since a 60-48 home loss to Southern Miss last week.

–Field Level Media