NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Vanderbilt guard Christina Foggie provided the fireworks early and the dagger late.
She scored 18 of her 23 points in the first half, leading the No. 25 Commodores to a 77-56 victory over Denver on Friday night.
Foggie, a sophomore, had a career-high six 3-pointers, with five by halftime. In the last three games, Foggie has scored at least 20 points and has made a total of 14 3-pointers as the Commodores (8-0) are off to their best start in five years.
“She has been very focused,” Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb said. “She is just really confident but she is just bringing another level of focus than she has ever had and it is carrying over to the games.”
Her final 3-pointer, though, squashed the Pioneers’ slim upset chances.
Denver (5-2) trailed by 30 early in the second half before cutting the deficit to 17. Foggie all but guaranteed Vanderbilt’s eighth straight win when she made a 3-pointer from the left of the wing. She then followed with a layup off a Pioneers’ turnover for a 68-44 lead with 7:31 left.
“I’ve been in a nice flow,” Foggie said. “My teammates have been setting really good screens so I have gotten a lot more 3s than I normally do.”
Denver’s sloppiness accounted for a 28-point halftime deficit. The Pioneers committed a season-high 23 turnovers, with Vanderbilt scoring 33 points off the miscues.
Denver had 14 turnovers by halftime, which allowed the Commodores to pull away. Three 3-pointers by Foggie fueled a 15-0 run as Tiffany Clarke’s layup with 8:11 left capped off the spurt for a 30-10 lead.
Vanderbilt led 48-21 at the break when Stephanie Holzer banked in a jumper as the buzzer sounded.
“This is the lesson that we needed to learn tonight: you are playing a Vanderbilt and when you make a mistake they make you pay,” Denver coach Erik Johnson said. “You turn it over, they get a layup. You forget what you are doing on defense, they hit a 3. Every little detail is sort of magnified against a team like this.”
The Commodores relaxed in the second half, going scoreless for nearly 3 minutes. Denver took advantage, going on a 10-2 run. Kaetlyn Murdoch’s two free throws sliced the margin to 61-44 with 10:54 remaining.
“We have a young team and I think it is difficult to maintain that lead and to maintain the intensity and the level of consistency that we wanted,” Balcomb said. “We haven’t had any trouble with that earlier in the season but this game we did. I think we just got a little complacent.”
It was the schools’ second meeting as Vanderbilt avenged last year’s 70-65 loss at Denver.
Murdoch led Denver with 12 points but shot just 2 of 11 from the field. Morgan Shell added 10 points. Shell wore a protective headband over a wrap that covered her right ear.
On Wednesday, against Northern Colorado, she collided with teammate Maiya Michel and lacerated her ear in three places. The injury required more than 25 stitches.
“I was proud of her,” Johnson said. “She is a tough kid.”
With the obvious height advantage, Vanderbilt outrebounded Denver 44-31. The Commodores grabbed 20 offensive rebounds and scored 18 second-chance points. Holzer led the way with 11 rebounds.
Elan Brown had 13 points and was one rebound short of a double-double for Vanderbilt. Kady Schrann and Jasmine Lister each chipped in 10.
The 8-0 start matches the Commodores’ fifth-best start in school history. They entered the game ranked sixth in the country in scoring margin, at 32.9 points a game. Their closest game was a 12-point victory over then-No. 12 Oklahoma on Saturday.
“We’re excited,” Foggie said. “We just want to keep working hard, not settle or be complacent and just keep working hard and building each day.”
