Tyler Nickel scored a career-high 30 points for No. 15 Vanderbilt (10-0) in an 83-72 rout of Central Arkansas (4-7) in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday evening.
Nickel hit eight 3-pointers and was 10-of-18 from the floor.
Vanderbilt’s Tyler Tanner had 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, while the Commodores’ Jalen Washington scored 12.
Camren Hunter (18 points), Ty Robinson (14) and Javion Guy-King (13) paced the Bears.
The Commodores are off to their best start since 2007-08. They’ve topped the 80-point mark in every game.
However, Vanderbilt was rusty Saturday, coming off a 10-day layoff for final exams. It shot just 42.5% from the floor and 28.8% from three after entering with season averages of 52.7% and 38.8%.
The Bears, heavy underdogs, cut the lead to 75-62 on Cole McCormick’s 3-pointer with 4:04 left.
The lead stayed at 12, but Nickel hit his eighth three of the night from the right corner with 2:13 left off a Washington assist.
The Bears then cut the lead to 79-69–the closest they got in the second half–but Nickel canned a pair of free throws with 58 seconds left.
The Commodores took control early, never trailing and taking their first double-figure lead just 5:29 into the game.
An 8-0 run early in the first half ended with Tanner’s fast-break dunk with 17:54 left in the game to make the lead 55-34.
Nickel scored all of Vanderbilt’s points as it built a 14-6 lead in the game’s first 5:00, the last points coming on Nickel’s fourth 3-pointer in that span.
Nickel had 19 points by the half, and the Commodores had a 47-31 advantage with a 14-4 edge in fast-break points.
