Jan 10, 2002
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Chantelle Anderson says she doesn’t have anything against Kentucky, but the Vanderbilt center’s play leaves it open for speculation.
Anderson scored 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds – for her sixth career double-double – along with five blocked shots, one short of her career high, to lead No. 8 Vanderbilt to a 71-54 victory over the Wildcats on Thursday night.
“It’s nothing personal,” said the 6-foot-6 Anderson, who scored 32 points against Kentucky last year and is averaging 28.3 points in three career games. “I think their defensive philosophy at the beginning was to play off me, so I took some outside shots. I got mad at myself because I wasn’t making them, and I decided to go back to the block.”
Anderson wound up hitting 11-of-17 field goals, including a pair of 3-point baskets. Her second one, with 11:47 remaining, gave the Commodores (15-3, 1-1 SEC) their largest lead of the game at 58-34.
“I was surprised I took the other ones, after I missed my first one,” said Anderson, who has hit six career 3-pointers.
Kentucky (8-7, 1-2 SEC) trailed 19-5 six minutes into the game on a 3-pointer by Vanderbilt’s Jillian Danker, fell behind 41-28 at halftime and never got the deficit down to single digits the rest of the night.
“I was very pleased with our team,” Kentucky coach Bernadette Mattox said. “We did some nice things. But when you play on the road and you give a team like Vanderbilt open looks, they’re going to hit some shots.”
SeSe Helm scored 14 points to lead Kentucky, with Keiko Tate adding 12.
“That’s three pretty good defensive performances in a row for us,” Vanderbilt coach Jim Foster said. “We’re maintaining our intensity. We’ve got a chance to be a pretty good defensive team.
“Chantelle was smart. She was rotating from the weak side and getting smaller players’ shots. Those are the type she should block.”
Despite outrebounding Vanderbilt and hitting one more field goal, Kentucky lost to the Commodores for the 12th time in their last 13 meetings and for the eighth consecutive time in Nashville.
“The difference was at the free-throw line,” Mattox said. “They shot 29, we shot five. We had our share of fouls, but I thought that was very lopsided.”
With the loss, Kentucky missed a chance to go over .500 in league play for the first time since beginning the 1999-00 conference schedule with back-to-back wins over Auburn and Florida.
Along with Anderson’s performance, Zuzi Klimesova scored 18 points for Vanderbilt.
