Vanderbilt’s Ace Glass III netted all 23 of his points in the second half, Tyler Tanner had 17 points, five rebounds and three steals, and the No. 22 Commodores sailed away from visiting Memphis 105-81 on Tuesday night in Nashville, Tenn.
Glass, who made 5 of 10 three-pointers, scored 16 points in the first 5:36 of the half as the Commodores (3-0) crafted a 24-point lead by the 12:46 mark and cruised to their third straight home win.
Berke Buyuktuncel totaled 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Sebastian Williams-Adams and Bangot Dak scored 11 apiece.
Vanderbilt was 15-for-32 (47%) from beyond the arc.
In their first road game, the Tigers (2-1) received 21 points and four rebounds from Luke Almodovar, who was hurt in the second half on a dunk. Tylik Weeks scored 15 points. Leading scorer Jayden Reid was injured early and managed 11 points.
Memphis led 4-0 in the first minute, but it suffered a major blow when Reid turned his left foot on a drive just over 90 seconds into the cross-state matchup.
After Tanner’s dunk at 14:43 put the home side up 12-10, Reid, who returned to the game after a few minutes of rest, drilled a three-pointer from up top to let his presence be known in the battle of guards.
The big men also had a say, as Buyuktuncel blocked Reid’s layup, and T.O. Barrett fed Dak for a slam dunk and a 24-19 lead.
A 13 1/2-point underdog, the Tigers got two free throws from Weeks and a reverse layup from Maxim Logue at 7:43 for a 27-27 tie.
However, the Commodores made 7 of 11 shots from deep, as Buyuktuncel, Tanner and Williams-Adams canned threes in just over two minutes for a 38-31 advantage.
Following Weeks’ layup, the Southeastern Conference school went up 47-42 on Barrett’s trey as the squad made 8 of 13 in the half.
Glass, a transfer from Washington State, opened the second half with a pair of threes as the margin grew to 11. He hit two freebies and two more deep shots to put the Commodores up 67-49 in the first five minutes of play.
With 10:25 left, Almodovar fell hard to the floor on a breakaway dunk after holding onto the rim. He landed awkwardly on his shoulders and had to be assisted to the locker room.