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  • Scotty Pippen Jr. and Vanderbilt Dunk on the Bearcats in Cincinnati, 78-64

Scotty Pippen Jr. and Vanderbilt Dunk on the Bearcats in Cincinnati, 78-64

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Basketball

Scotty Pippen Jr. scored a career-high 36 points and Vanderbilt led for all but 3:52 of a 78-64 win at Cincinnati on Thursday at Fifth Third Arena.

Vandy (8-14) shot 51 percent from the floor and also got 15 points and 11 rebounds from Jordan Wright. DJ Harvey added 10. The victory was Vanderbilt’s first in five tries at Cincinnati.

The Commodores led by 15 late before Cincinnati pushed within 71-64 at the 3:57 mark. But that would be as close as the home team could get.

Vanderbilt ended the contest on a 7-0 run to win for the third time in seven games.

Head coach Jerry Stackhouse’s team will end the regular season at 6 p.m. Saturday with a rematch against Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi.

Vanderbilt got some separation early Thursday thanks to a Pippen layup followed by a Maxwell Evans two-handed slam from the left baseline. Quentin Millora-Brown joined the fun with a one-handed jam beating the press and then Evans snuck behind the defense for an easy layup making it 14-7.

Pippen connected on the rare four-point play at the 9:40 mark to put the Commodores up 25-16. The Bearcats crept back in with an 8-2 run before a Harvey triple from the left wing made put Vandy up 30-24 with 8:13 left in the half.

Harvey’s second 3 gave the Dores their biggest lead of the first half at 35-24. Once again Cincinnati made a small run to get within 40-35 before Pippen ended the half with seven straight.

Pippen scored 23 points in the first half, made all five of his 3-pointers (two of which resulted in four-point plays) and was 6 of 6 from the line.

As a team the Commodores shot 57.7 percent and 10-for-13 from the line. The Bearcats had 10 turnovers.

Pippen’s layup four minutes into the second half ballooned Vanderbilt’s lead to 55-37. At that point the sophomore had 27 points on 8 of 9 shooting.

Vandy, however, then went 5:04 without a made field goal. The Commodores still led by 12 with 10 minutes to play until Keith Williams hit a left-corner 3 to cut it to 59-50.

Jeremiah Davenport’s two-handed dunk with 8:26 showing on the clock got the Bearcats down 61-54. Evans restored order shortly thereafter with a left-corner 3 putting Vandy back up 10.

A Harvey layup gave the Commodores a 71-56 lead and set up the final five minutes of action.

Williams led the Bearcats (9-10) with 20.

• Pippen, Evans, Wright, Clevon Brown and Trey Thomas and started Thursday’s game for Vanderbilt. That marked the 16th different starting lineup for the Commodores in 2020-21.

• The Commodores are now 6-3 this season when scoring at least 75 points.

• Vanderbilt has now made at least four 3s in 37 consecutive games.

• Vandy is now 8-2 this season when tied or leading at halftime. Thursday’s win was also Vanderbilt’s first on a weekday (1-9).

• The Commodores are now 2-6 all-time against the Bearcats and 1-4 at Cincinnati.

• Vanderbilt will be the No. 11 or No. 12 seed in the SEC Tournament in Nashville beginning Wednesday. The Commodores would pass South Carolina for the 11 seed with a win and a Gamecocks loss via Vanderbilt’s tie-breaking head-to-head win on Jan. 30. With a loss or South Carolina win, Vanderbilt will play Texas A&M in the first round Wednesday at 6 p.m., but with a win and South Carolina loss, Vanderbilt will play the No. 6 seed (currently Ole Miss) in the final game of the day on Thursday.