Field Level Media
Dec 10, 2021
Braden Norris finished with 18 points and nine assists and Ryan Schwieger added 14 points as Loyola of Chicago pulled away from Vanderbilt in the second half to win 69-58 in a nonconference game Friday night in Nashville, Tenn.
Norris hit two 3-pointers and Schwieger made one during an 11-0 run in the second half, giving the Ramblers (9-2) a 53-40 lead with 10:49 left in the game. Vanderbilt (5-4) got as close as 56-49 on a basket by Jordan Wright with 5:50 left, but 3-pointers by Lucas Williamson and Norris extended the lead back to 13.
Norris went 6-for-8 from 3-point range to account for all of his scoring.
Williamson, a fifth-year senior, made a 3-pointer for Loyola's first basket of the game to surpass the 1,000-point plateau for his college career. Williamson finished with 11 points and has 1,009. He had nine rebounds.
Scotty Pippen Jr., a junior guard who scored 14 of his game-high 23 points in the first half for the Commodores, has 998 points for his college career.
Loyola was 17-for-37 (45.9 percent) from beyond the arc but only 2-for-6 from the foul line.
After Vanderbilt's Trey Thomas tied the score at 19 with a driving layup with 5:43 to go in the first half, the Ramblers went on a 9-3 run to open a 28-22 lead with 2:58 left. The spurt was capped by a 3-pointer by Keith Clemons off a kickout pass from the lane by Jacob Hutson.
Pippen made two foul shots for Vanderbilt to cut the lead to four, but Williamson's layup extended the lead to 30-24. After Jamaine Mann split a pair of free throws for the Commodores, Myles Stute's driving layup with 1:07 left in the half cut Vanderbilt's deficit to 30-27 at intermission.
Marquise Kennedy's 3-pointer 2:15 into the second half gave the Ramblers a 36-29 lead.
The Commodores then rallied, closing within two points on three occasions. On two of those occasions, Vanderbilt did it by making traditional three-point plays, the first one by Mann and the second one by Thomas. The latter one trimmed the Ramblers' lead to 42-40 with 13:02 to go in the game.
--Field Level Media