Scouting Ole Miss
Ole Miss enters the game with an overall record of 12-4 and a 3-3 mark in the SEC after suffering a 58-57 home loss to Mississippi State Wednesday. Prior to Wednesday’s loss, the Rebels had won three straight, including victories at LSU and over Alabama.

Juniors Aaron Harper and Justin Reed lead the team in scoring with 14.4 points per game apiece. Reed is the squad’s leading rebounder with 5.8 boards per contest. Senior David Sanders and freshman Trey Pearson share the team lead in assists at 3.4 per game.

Excluding the two newest members of the SEC, Arkansas and South Carolina, Ole Miss is tied with Mississippi State for the fewest wins in Nashville among SEC squads with seven. Last year, the Rebels ended a Vanderbilt three-game winning streak with a 73-61 defeat of the Commodores in Oxford, Miss. Two years ago in Memorial Gym, the Rebels defeated Vanderbilt 81-68 to earn their first Nashville win over the Commodores since the 1984-85 season.

Three...Dot...Data vs. Georgia
In defeating No. 15 Georgia, the Commodores beat the team with the nation’s top RPI ranking...Vanderbilt is now 1-4 when their opponents shoot better than 50 percent...VU has grabbed seven offensive rebounds in each of the past five games...Freshman Julian Terrell has played a career-high 21 minutes in the past two games...Terrell, who got his second career start subbing for the injured Corey Smith, grabbed seven rebounds...VU’s 12 turnovers is the third fewest this season...This was the first win in three games in which the Commodore bench was outscored...In the second straight game without starting, Russell Lakey scored eight points on 3-of-3 shooting and also tallied four assists to just one turnover...Points in the paint: VU 324, UGA 34...Points off turnovers: VU 13, UGA 17...Second-chance points: VU 11, UGA 12...Fastbreak points: VU 6, UGA 22.

Common Opponents
Vanderbilt and Ole Miss have played two common opponents with both teams posting 1-1 marks against those teams.

Opponent VU UM
Alabama W, 70-69 W, 76-57
Tennessee L, 66-71 L, 64-66

Freije Scores Career-High in Upset of No. 15 Georgia
Junior Matt Freije tallied a career-high 31 points and grabbed nine rebounds in leading Vanderbilt to a 94-91 upset victory over No. 15 Georgia. He is Vanderbilt’s first 30-point scorer since Dan Langhi scored 31 points against Georgia March 1, 2000.

Freije finished the game 11-of-15 from the field, including hitting a career-best five three-pointers in eight attempts. He also was 4-of-6 from the free-throw line. This was the eighth time in his career that he missed recording a double-double by just one rebound.

Freije scored 19 of his points in the first half on 7-of-10 shooting. The 19 first-half points is better than all but four of Freije game totals this season.

Commodores Find Three-Point Stroke
After facing some inconsistency from three-point range during the early part of the season, the Commodores have rebounded from behind the arc. In the past five games, VU has made 51.9 percent (42-81) of its three-point shots and has not made less than eight treys in any of those five contests.

For the season, Vanderbilt is shooting 35.7 percent from threepoint range and is averaging 6.12 three-pointers per game.

Hundley Makes Most of Opportunity
With Corey Smith unavailable, Scott Hundley and Julian Terrell were given more of an opportunity to help the Commodores. While Terrell’s play was solid, it was Hundley that truly made his mark.

Playing a career-high 24 minutes, Hundley scored a season-high 14 points, grabbed four rebounds and pocketed a career-best four steals. He also recorded career-highs with his 8-of-9 performance from the free-throw line. His 4-of-4 shooting from the charity stripe in the final 10 seconds of the game secured the Vanderbilt victory.

Vanderbilt Leans on Late Free-Throw Shooting
Despite not making a field goal in the final 3:15 against Georgia, Vanderbilt was able to defeat the Bulldogs, 94-91, on the strength of 11-of-14 shooting from the free-throw line. Hundley did the lion’s share of the work, hitting 5-of-6 free throws. Also helping to secure the win were Brian Thornton (3-4), Russell Lakey (2-2) and Matt Freije (1-2).

Smith Out of Action
Sophomore Corey Smith is currently listed as day-to-day after breaking a bone in hand during practice Jan. 24. The fracture is in his left, non-shooting hand. Smith had started 15-of-16 games before missing the Georgia game.

Vanderbilt Playing Nation’s 14th Toughest Schedule
As of Monday, CollegeRPI.com has Vanderbilt’s schedule ranked as the 14th toughest in the nation. Only Georgia (1), Arkansas (3), South Carolina (7) and Alabama (8) have tougher schedules in the SEC.

This season VU has played seven teams ranked in the Top-16 of the national polls, including Connecticut (12), Indiana (6), Notre Dame (6), Alabama (4), Kentucky (16), Florida (5) and Georgia (15).

Complete Notes