Chantelle Anderson and Zuzi Klimesova each had 19 points and nine rebounds and Ashley McElhiney added 19 points and six assists as the No. 6 Vanderbilt women's basketball team defeated No. 25 Mississippi State 72-53 Sunday in Memorial Gym. The win improves the Commodores record to 21-5, 7-3 in the SEC and drops Mississippi State to 16-8, 7-4 in the conference.

Vanderbilt, coming off an eight-day break, came out strong and put together an 10-0 run over the first five and a half minutes of the contest. The Commodores maintained that edge for most of the first half before putting a 10-3 run together to close out the half and take a 19 point edge into the locker room, 37-18. The Lady Bulldogs made a run of their own to start the second half, outscoring the Commodores 7-0 after the break to cut the lead to 12 points. Mississippi State got within 10 points midway through the second half, but could not get any closer as the Commodores went on a 12-0 run to increase their lead to 22 points with five minutes to play.

Anderson, Klimesova, and McElhiney all had 19 points to lead the Commodores. Jessica Carter came off the bench to make seven of ten three-pointers and score 21 points to lead Mississippi State. LaToya Thomas scored 14 points and Tan White added 11 for the Lady Bulldogs.

Vanderbilt will return to action on Thursday as Louisiana State visits Memorial Gym. Gametime is 7:00 p.m. and the game can be seen on Fox Sports.

Vanderbilt Head Coach Jim Foster:

"I thought our defense was very good and our offense was patient."

"When we get a lot of people a lot of touches we can be a good offensive basketball team and we took another step towards that tonight."

"I think we did a great job defensively on Thomas. She is as gifted as any player in the nation. She had to work for everything she got tonight. We used a lot of help to guard her because you can't guard her with only one player."

Vanderbilt Center Chantelle Anderson:

"I think they had a gameplan to collapse on me so my teammates went to the open space, I got them the ball, and they made the shots."

"I think our balance is what makes us so tough to defend. We have so many weapons and we will take what they give us defensively. It just shows the talent level and unselfishness of this team."

Mississippi State Head Coach Sharon Fanning:

"There have been a few games like this for us when teams have focused on LaToya and Tan, but I think tonight we got frustrated early and we got into a hole because of it."

"This is a very difficult place to play. I was happy with how we responded in the second half and got the lead down to ten, but then we couldn't make the defensive stops and let them get too many offensive rebounds."