Ace Glass Scores 23 After Halftime as No. 22 Vanderbilt Routs Memphis 105-81

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Ace Glass scored all 23 of his points after halftime, and No. 22 Vanderbilt beat Memphis 105-81 on Tuesday night at Memorial Gymnasium. The Commodores improved to 3-0. Memphis fell to 2-1.

The game was still a one-possession fight in the final minutes of the first half. Then Glass took over. The sophomore transfer from Washington State opened the second half with consecutive 3-pointers and made five of his first seven 3s after the break, igniting a 23-7 Vanderbilt run that turned a 47-42 halftime lead into a rout. Vanderbilt shot 15 of 32 from 3-point range, with seven different Commodores making at least one, and led by as many as 27 late. The Commodores outscored Memphis 58-39 in the second half on the way to 105 points.

Tyler Tanner scored 17 points. Berke Büyüktuncel had 16. Sebastian Williams-Adams and Bangot Dak each added 11. Official team recaps and a full box score had not been posted at the time this story was published. Those individual totals, along with the second-half run and the 3-point numbers, come from the Associated Press recap carried in the ESPN game package.

Glass did not score in the first half and still finished as the game's leading scorer. His 23 points after the break were more than any Memphis player scored Tuesday, and they arrived after Vanderbilt had spent its first two nights winning with defense. The Commodores are 3-0 and 3-0 at home. Memphis is 2-1 and 0-1 on the road.

The first half looked like the in-state fight Vanderbilt's preview billed. The Commodores used a 13-4 run to take a 40-31 lead with 4:30 left, the last two points coming on free throws from freshman Ant Brown Jr. Memphis answered with nine straight points, including five free throws from Luke Almodovar, and Almodovar's turnaround jumper in the paint tied the game at 40 with 2:06 remaining. T.O. Barrett hit a 3-pointer just before the first-half clock expired, and Vanderbilt went to the locker room up 47-42.

That late first-half 3 was the last time the Tigers were really in the game. Glass's flurry after the break stretched the lead, and Memorial Gym never got the tight finish the first 20 minutes had promised. Vanderbilt's official preview had pointed to a new-look lineup that held Bellarmine to 47 points and Wake Forest to 51 in the first two games, a defensive start the school said ranked among the best in the country through opening week. Memphis, which arrived 2-0, still scored 81, but it could not keep Vanderbilt off the 3-point line after halftime.

The Tigers came in just outside the AP Top 25 after beating then-No. 18 Iowa State in South Dakota and VCU in their home opener. They also played through two injuries Tuesday. Jayden Reid, the AP men's basketball player of the week coming into the game, hurt his left ankle within the first two minutes, limped to the bench and later returned. He finished with 11 points. Almodovar led Memphis with 21 points but landed on his back after a dunk in the second half, walked to the locker room and did not return. Tylik Weeks scored 15.

Tuesday was the fourth meeting between the programs in a five-year span and the second straight season they have played. Vanderbilt won 77-70 in overtime at Memphis last season, a result the Commodores' official preview said gave Vanderbilt a 9-8 lead in the all-time series. Tuesday's win made it two in a row for Vanderbilt and moved the series to 10-8 in the Commodores' favor.

Vanderbilt had opened 2-0 at home before this one, and Tanner entered the night averaging 18.5 points after a 17-point, 10-rebound game against Wake Forest, his first career points-and-rebounds double-double, according to the official preview. He scored 17 again Tuesday, this time as the second option behind Glass's second-half outburst. Mark Byington, Vanderbilt's head coach, now has the Commodores at 3-0 after a 24-point win over an in-state opponent that arrived with two quality victories of its own. Vanderbilt entered ranked No. 22 in the AP poll and No. 19 in the coaches poll, a stretch the preview said had reached 19 straight AP appearances, a school record.

Tip-off was 6:15 p.m. ET on SEC Network+, per Vanderbilt's game preview. ESPN did not list an attendance figure, and a complete play-by-play was not available in the ESPN game package when this story was published.

Vanderbilt hosts Prairie View A&M on Friday night at Memorial Gymnasium. Memphis hosts No. 10 Louisville on Sunday afternoon.

For more on the buildup, see Vanderbilt's game preview (opens in a new tab) and Memphis' preview of the in-state meeting (opens in a new tab), plus the ESPN recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN, Associated Press, Vanderbilt Athletics, Memphis Athletics. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Beau Brune / Vanderbilt Athletics (file photo from Nov. 6, 2026, vs. Wake Forest)