FINAL SCORE: Vanderbilt 101, Western Kentucky 77

RECORDS:
Western Kentucky "Hilltoppers" — 2-6 Overall / 0-0 Sun Belt Conference
Vanderbilt "Commodores" — 7-0 Overall / 0-0 Southeastern Conference

PLAY-BY-PLAY HIGHLIGHTS:
First Half — WKU dented the scoreboard first on a three-pointer by Filip Videnov at the 19:28 mark ... Vanderbilt's Atiba Prater tied the game at 8-8 with a FT with 17:23 left ... Videnov picked up his second foul with 16:41 to go in the half ... Vanderbilt then put together a 14-5 run, highlighted by 7 points from Prater (VU 22-13, 14:28) ... The Hilltoppers bounced back with a 9-2 run of their own, capped off by 2 FT from Brian Allenspach to close the Commodore lead to 1 point at the second media timeout (VU 24-23, 11:01) ... Vanderbilt clamped down on defense, holding Western to 1 FG over the next 5:52 ... The Commodores put together a 21-2 run, riding the hot shooting of Dan Langhi, who connected for 10 points in the surge to give his team a 45-25 lead (5:48 remaining) ... Marcus scored 5 straight points to pull WKU within 45-30 at the 4:48 mark ... VU countered by scoring 15 of the last 20 points in the period for a 25-point lead (their largest of the half).

Second Half — Western's Derek Robinson scored the first points of the second half on a driving layup with 19:49 left (VU 60-37) ... Vanderbilt mounted an 11-2 run spanning the next 5:30, with Dan Langhi finishing off the spurt with a fast break dunk (VU 71-39, 14:19) ... Sam Howard's three-pointer on the right wing gave VU its largest lead of the game at 33 points (76-43, 12:32) ... The Hilltoppers went on a 9-1 run, highlighted by 3 pts each from Chris Marcus and Jimmy Boykin (VU 77-52, 9:43) ... Langhi then scored the next 9 points for VU to boost the VU lead to 85-55 (8:42) ... WKU pieced together an 11-2 run, with 6 pts from Robinson, to pull within 87-66 (the narrowest margin of the second half) with 5:22 to go.

COACHES' QUOTES:
WKU Head Coach Dennis Felton — "There's no doubt about it, you have to give Vanderbilt a lot of credit. They were so sharp and so aggressive and they were awfully hard to beat tonight ... (about VU run late in first half) We got caught up in the enormity of the moment and their crowd added to it. We lost our composure and that just stoked the fire even more."

NEXT GAME — The Hilltoppers take a break for the Christmas holiday before traveling to Green Bay, Wisc., to face Austin Peay in semifinal action at the Oneida Bingo & Casino Classic Wednesday, Dec. 29 at 8 p.m. (CST) ... Vanderbilt will square off with Stetson Monday (Dec. 20) at 7 p.m. (CST) in Nashville.

NOTES — Tonight's game was the first between WKU and Vanderbilt in 19 years (Nov. 29, 1980) and the first Hilltopper appearance at Vanderbilt in 27 seasons (Dec. 9, 1972) ... The 101 points scored by Vanderbilt marks the first 100-point game by a Hilltopper opponent since Jacksonville defeated WKU, 100-88 in 2 OT on Dec. 3, 1994 ... It's also the highest WKU opponent output since North Carolina downed Western, 101-87 on Nov. 17, 1993 ... Videnov's 16 points are a career-high ... Robinson's 13 points are a season-best ... Boyden tied his season-high with 10 points and had a career-high 9 rebounds ... Western played its second SEC school of the season (also played Mississippi State), the first time it's done that since playing Georgia and Kentucky in the 1990-91 campaign.