Siakam scored14, grabs 7 rebounds as Vanderbilt rolls into NIT quarterfinals

Vanderbilt followed a 3-point flurry, a record number of blocks and a near triple-double into the quarterfinal round of the National Invitation Tournament.

The Commodores beat South Dakota State 92-77 Friday night in front of a crowd of 5,605 in the first NIT home game at Memorial Gym in 10 years.

"Man, how awesome was our crowd?" Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. "Our guys just fed off that energy all night."

Freshman Wade Baldwin narrowly missed posting the second triple-double in Vanderbilt history (Brad Tinsley, 2010). Baldwin finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds (both career highs) and nine assists.

He had a chance for his 10th assist on a two-on-one break with Riley LaChance, but Baldwin instead made the layup.

"I knew (about the chance at a triple-double). The coaches told me," Baldwin said. "But it was going to be forced, and I'm not about padding stats."

Vanderbilt (21-13) took the game over in a frenetic five minutes in the second half that included a 23-2 run and five 3-pointers. Freshman Matthew Fisher-Davis nailed four straight 3s in a span of less than three minutes to spark the sudden spurt.

Damian Jones started the run with a dunk to tie it 59-59 with 8:55 remaining. Baldwin followed with a 3-pointer, and then Fisher-Davis lit up the arena with four consecutive 3-pointers.

"When you hit a couple (3-pointers), the basket just (gets) so much bigger," Fisher-Davis said.

At the end of the run, the Commodores were comfortably ahead 80-63 with 3:51 left. They shot 81.8 percent from the field in the second half.

Jones had 15 points. James Siakam added 14 points and seven rebounds. Luke Kornet and Fisher-Davis had 12 points each. The Commodores recorded a single-game team record 13 blocks.

Cody Larson led South Dakota State (24-11) with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Vanderbilt, which has won 10 of its last 13 games, will play a third-round contest on the road Tuesday, but the tipoff time has not been determined. It will be against the winner of Sunday's second-round game between Stanford and Rhode Island.

The Commodores advanced to the third round of the NIT for the first time since 2005. They were the NIT runner-up in 1994 and tournament champion in 1990.

Vanderbilt finished the first half on an 11-5 run, all with Jones on the bench in early foul trouble for the final 6:22.

Siakam picked up the load, scoring eight straight points for the Commodores, including a dunk and putback on back-to-back possessions to force a South Dakota State timeout.

Kornet capped the half with a 3-pointer to put Vanderbilt ahead 33-27. Fisher-Davis' block on South Dakota State's final possession of the first half broke the Commodores' single-season program record for blocks (174 in 2008-09).

South Dakota State stormed out of intermission with nine unanswered points before the Commodores could catch their collective breath.

Larson made back-to-back layups, and Reed Tellinghuisen buried a jumper and 3-pointer to put the Jackrabbits up 36-33 — their first lead since the 16:48 mark of the first half.

Jones finally got his first field goal of the night to cut South Dakota State's lead to 38-37, but bad news followed a few seconds later with LaChance's fourth foul with 16:31 remaining.

But again, Vanderbilt responded with a key scorer on the bench by reeling off an 11-2 run — sparked by dunks from Jeff Roberson and Kornet — and re-taking the lead. From there, they swapped the lead until Vanderbilt caught fire just under the nine-minute mark.