Duke Miles scored a season-high 30 points as No. 22 Vanderbilt beat No. 25 Tennessee 75-68 on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
The fourth-seeded Commodores (25-7) arrived with their best seed since winning the 2012 SEC Tournament. They will face regular-season SEC champion Florida, a 71-63 winner over Kentucky, on Saturday.
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Tyler Tanner added 19 points for the Commodores, who earned their third straight victory.
No. 25 Tennessee (22-11) lost to Vanderbilt for the second time in a week and remains well ahead of the tournament title game, where the Vols lost to Florida last year.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie led Tennessee with 21 points. Nate Amentwho had 27 points in the second round, missed his first eight shots. He finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. JP Estrella added 12 points and Jaylen Carey added 10.
Gillespie made consecutive 3-pointers to give Tennessee a 45-38 lead with 14:51 to play. Vanderbilt responded with 10 straight points and never trailed again. Miles started the surge, hitting two free throws and finished it with a 3.
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Vanderbilt led by eight. Ament kept the Vols close, but the Commodores made their final eight free throws to clinch the victory. They made 16 of 18 from the line in the second half and shot 84.6 percent (22 of 26) for the game.
These teams have split wins on each other’s home turf, with Vanderbilt closing out the regular season by beating Tennessee last week. The Commodores had extra cheerleaders with the sixth-ranked Vanderbilt women in the top spot.
To be continued
Tennessee didn’t help its seeding in the NCAA tournament. The Vols have lost four of their last six.
Vanderbilt has a chance to avenge its 98-94 loss Jan. 17 on home turf against Florida.
