Vanderbilt women’s basketball has continued to make history in Shea Ralph’s third season.
With a 68-61 win over Missouri (11-17, 2-13 SEC) on Thursday in Columbia, Missouri, the Commodores (21-8, 8-7) set a program record for most road conference wins with six. The 21 wins are the most they’ve had since the 2012-13 season, and they have one more chance to surpass that, with Sunday’s regular-season finale at home against Georgia. The Commodores also will finish at least .500 in the SEC for the first time since that season.
“We went out to dinner last night,” Ralph said after the game. “We haven’t really been able to do that much since COVID. This year, we really made an emphasis if we have a late game or we’re going to be in the hotel all day the next day, let’s get out the night before once we get to the city. And I think that we’ve grown as a team collectively because of that. I think they’re really enjoying each other but I think that limited distraction on the road has helped us focus and made sure that that we bring the energy we need to win the game.”
Iyana Moore led Vanderbilt scorers with 15 points and a career-high nine rebounds. Jordyn Cambridge scored just six points but led the team with eight assists and four steals. Three other players scored in double digits: Justine Pissott (12 points), Sacha Washington (11 points) and Khamil Pierre (10 points). Earlier in the season, Pierre became the first player in program history to win SEC Freshman of the Week four times.
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Where Vanderbilt women’s basketball stands on NCAA Tournament bubble
As of Thursday morning, two of the three major women’s basketball bracketologists had the Commodores in the NCAA Tournament. ESPN had Vanderbilt in the first four out but both The Athletic and Her Hoop Stats had the Commodores as one of the last four in. The Athletic had Vanderbilt facing Washington State in the First Four in Spokane, Wash., while Her Hoop Stats had the Commodores facing Michigan in Boulder, Colo.
According to Vanderbilt radio broadcaster Jake Lyman, every SEC team since 2000 that had 20 or more overall wins and eight or more SEC victories has qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt sets program record against Missouri, still on NCAA bubble
