Strangely, it wasn’t a slow start that caused problems for Vanderbilt in its SEC opener against the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday night. The Commodores scored the game’s first six points, and got out to a 10-4 lead behind a couple of early baskets from Yanni Wetzell.
But then Ole Miss switched into a 1-3-1 halfcourt trap that the Commodores couldn’t seem to figure out. The game turned into a slog, with both teams countering each other’s punches for most of the first half. Joe Toye connected on Vanderbilt’s first three-pointer with 8:54 left in the first half; that was immediately countered by a three from Ole Miss’s Breein Tyree, who finished the game with 31 points.