Ndewedo Newbury scored 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting as San Francisco scored a 73-60 win over host Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday.
Marcus Williams scored 18 points, Malik Thomas added 10 and Jonathan Mogbo pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds for the Dons (6-3), who out-rebounded Vanderbilt 39-21.
Ven-Allen Lubin led the Commodores (4-5) with 15 points, and Ezra Manjon chipped in 10.
The Dons, despite losing the turnover battle 15-10 and committing 12 fouls to Vanderbilt’s 10, led wire to wire.
San Francisco shot 51 percent from the field, 44.8 percent from 3-point range and 88.9 percent on free-throw attempts and had 18 assists on 26 field goals.
The second half was a game of runs, but the Commodores never got sustained momentum.
Vanderbilt trailed by 14 at the break, but Lubin’s layup with 15:02 remaining capped an 8-0 burst and cut the lead to 47-43.
San Francisco came back with its own 8-0 run covering 60 seconds, keyed by a pair of Josh Kunen 3-pointers, pushed the lead back to a dozen.
Newbury’s trey from the top of the key with 3:51 left gave the Dons a 70-58 advantage, and Vanderbilt never got within single digits again.
Evan Taylor’s buzzer-beating 3 cut San Francisco’s lead to 43-29 at half.
The Dons statistically dominated the first, hitting 60 percent of their shots, which included 8 of 14 from long range. They out-rebounded Vanderbilt, 19-8, and were 5-of-5 from the foul line compared to the Commodores’ 1-of-6.
San Francisco jumped out to a 10-2 lead at the first media time out and had its biggest lead of the night at 39-21 when Thomas hit a 3-pointer with 1:51 left.
With Colin Smith’s return from a concussion, Vanderbilt had its full complement of players available on Wednesday except for Lee Dort, a reserve who was suspended after he was charged with felony aggravated assault for an off-court incident at the end of November.
Preseason second-team All-Southeastern Conference guard Tyrin Lawrence, who missed the first four games of the season with an ankle injury, scored just five points in 23 minutes on just four shots on Wednesday.
–Field Level Media