No. 19 Vanderbilt Routs St. John’s

Vanderbilt finished with 53 percent shooting, 12 threes and dominated the Johnnies on the glass, 49 to 26. “We had a lot of people play well and we shot the ball well”.

Jeff Roberson led Vandy with a double-double racking up 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Luke Kornet scored 13 points for the Commodores (4-0), No. 19 in The Associated Press rankings.

Vanderbilt improved to 4-0 on the season, while the Red Storm fell to 3-1. “I just tried to be as much of a physical presence as I could around the goal”. Wade Baldwin IV led Vanderbilt with 21 points and 6 rebounds. “It was their length that hurt us”.

“We have great opponents”, Alford said, “so we have to play well”. It’s about what happens from here.

“We only had eight turnovers”, he said. This year, he has made 18 of 26 shots from the field (69.2 percent). Mullin inherited the gauntlet from previous coach Steve Lavin’s scheduling, and tournament director Dave Odom acknowledged to the News last week that St. John’s faced large challenges.

7-foot center Thomas Welsh has made a strong impact through three contests, averaging 13.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Stallings had a chance to give players more minutes than normal.

“We do get to prove ourselves a little bit”, Alford said, “because we’re under the radar, but we should be after losing the opener”.

Mussini led the team with 14 points.

The St. John’s Red Storm are 3-0 and are coming off of a win against Rutgers by a score of 61-59.

St. John’s played without freshman guard Malik Ellison (foot) and junior college transfer forward Darien Williams (shoulder).

UCLA’s previous four trips to the Maui Invitational took place in the fall of 1995, 2001, 2006 and 2011.

UCLA will play either No. 4-ranked Kansas or Chaminade University on Tuesday, November 24, in the Bruins’ second game of the Maui Invitational. Damian Jones is the leading rebounder for Vanderbilt with 6.7 rebounds per game. They beat Stony Brook in overtime last Thursday.

St. John’s: IN in Maui Invitational consolation round. St. John’s/Vanderbilt loser vs. Wake Forest/Indiana loser, 9 a.m.; Kansas/Chaminade loser vs. UNLV/UCLA loser, 11:30 a.m. Semifinals: St. John’s/Vanderbilt winner vs. Wake Forest/Indiana winner, 2:30 p.m.; Kansas/Chaminade winner vs. UNLV/UCLA winner, 5 p.m., Lahaina Civic Center, Maui.