After strengthening their Top 25 credentials with a pair of victories against high-level competition, No. 22 Vanderbilt will look to keep rolling Friday against Prairie View A&M in Nashville, Tenn.
Following an easy season-opening win over Bellarmine, the Commodores (3-0) recorded a 74-51 home victory over Wake Forest on Nov. 5 and a 105-81 victory at home over Memphis on Tuesday.
Vanderbilt’s average margin of victory in the early portion of the schedule is 31.0 points.
Ace Glass III scored all 23 of his points in the second half on Tuesday, while Tyler Tanner scored 17 points and Berke Buyuktuncel added 16 points with eight rebounds and four assists.
Glass bounced back after he missed two shots and had three turnovers in nine first-half minutes.
“Halftime, I’m talking to myself, my teammates talking to me, just getting out of that little funk and just playing for my teammates, remembering that it’s not about me,” Glass said. “It’s about my teammates, about us winning the game most importantly. When I’m focusing on winning, that’s when I’m going to play my best.”
Vanderbilt not only shot 57.1% from the floor but also was 46.9% (15 of 32) from 3-point range and had a 44-29 rebounding advantage.
“The ball really moved tonight and it found the open guy and it was the 3s, it was the layups, it was our shot quality,” Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington said.
Tanner leads the Commodores with 18.0 points through three games, while Glass, a Washington State transfer, is at 17.0 points and Buyuktuncel, a Nebraska transfer, is scoring 11.3 points. Tanner and Buyuktuncel are tied for the team lead with 5.7 rebounds per game.
By moving up two spots in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 Poll, Vanderbilt set a program record with 19 consecutive appearances in the rankings going back to last season.
Prairie View A&M (2-2) had a busy start to the season with four games in nine days. After victories over Paul Quinn College and College of Biblical Studies, the Panthers fell 68-63 to Texas Rio Grande Valley and were crushed 98-63 at SMU on Tuesday.
Anthony Gause scored 26 points against the Mustangs on 9-of-19 shooting, including 5 of 9 from 3-point range, and is third on the team with 11.8 points per game. Michael Eley has averaged 16.5 points and Davis Bynum is at 15.3 after they each scored eight against SMU.
Friday is the second of three consecutive games against power-conference teams for Prairie View A&M, with a visit to Ohio State set for Monday.
The Panthers went 19-18 last season for their first winning season since 2020-21. They defeated Lehigh in a First Four game at the NCAA Tournament before falling 114-55 in the first round against Florida.
“Our guys are always going to play hard, they are going to play smart, for the most part, and we’re going to play together,” Panthers head coach Byron Smith said. “Nothing changes with us. The script is still the same, it’s just the character (on the roster) is a little different.”
