Tyler Tanner's Double-Double Leads No. 24 Vanderbilt Past Wake Forest 74-51

Vanderbilt shot 39 percent, missed 17 of its 27 3-point attempts and still beat an ACC team by 23. That is what happens when you grab 48 rebounds and your All-American point guard decides to play power forward for a night. No. 24 Vanderbilt pulled away from Wake Forest for a 74-51 win Thursday night at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, moving to 2-0 and closing out the home-and-home series with a second straight win over the Demon Deacons.

Tyler Tanner finished with 17 points and a career-high 10 rebounds for the second double-double of his career. According to the Vanderbilt recap (opens in a new tab), it was the first double-double by a Commodore since Devin McGlockton went for 17 and 10 against Georgia on Feb. 25. Wake Forest fell to 1-1, and its 51 points were its fewest since a 44-point night against Texas A&M in December 2024.

A Different Cast, Same Result

The matchup had a familiar feel. Last December, Vanderbilt went to LJVM Coliseum in Winston-Salem and hammered Wake Forest 98-67 behind 26 points from Tyler Nickel and 17 from Duke Miles. Both are gone now, along with two more starters from that team. Wake has turned over a big chunk of its own roster too: neither of its top scorers from that game, Myles Colvin and Juke Harris, appeared in Thursday's box score. So this was less a rematch than a fresh introduction between two rebuilt rosters, and the result looked a lot like last season anyway.

That says something about the program coach Mark Byington has built in three years. The names change. The physical identity does not.

A Grind Before the Gap

This one did not start like the Bellarmine blowout. Wake Forest's Gavin Placide scored four early points, and the Demon Deacons led 6-5 before Ace Glass buried a 3 and Tanner hit two free throws to put Vanderbilt in front for good at 7-6.

From there, the Commodores built a cushion with a 15-6 burst. Tanner hit a midrange jumper, freshman Anthony Brown Jr. knocked down two 3s, and Vanderbilt led 22-13 before Wake called timeout. Isaac Carr answered with a pair of corner 3s, and then Kevair Kennedy took over for the visitors, scoring seven straight points to cut it to 27-20 with 7:37 left in the half.

Vanderbilt got sloppy. A couple of missed layups and a turnover opened the door, and Jamari McDowell's 3 made it 30-27 with 3:27 to go before the break. For a minute, Memorial Gym had the feel of a real game.

The 9-0 Run That Changed It

Then the Commodores flipped the switch. Chandler Bing scored on a layup and swatted a shot at the other end, and Vanderbilt started turning defense into offense. The capper came after Byington won a coach's challenge, and Glass made Wake pay with a deep 3. Vanderbilt closed the half on a 9-0 run and went into the locker room up 39-27.

That run was the turning point, not because it decided the game on the spot, but because it gave Vanderbilt the margin to survive the stretch that came next. Kennedy led a 6-0 Wake run to open the second half, and the lead was suddenly six. Glass hit his third 3, Tanner scored on a putback, and Placide's basket made it 44-35. Wake kept pushing and got within 46-40 with about 12 minutes left.

That was the last time it felt close. Tanner threw down a dunk and Brown hit two more 3s, and the lead was back to 54-42. Brown added a floater, Glass drained his fourth 3 from the corner, and the rout was on. Vanderbilt led 66-47 with 3:43 to play, and Tanner checked out with 1:42 left in a game that was long since settled.

Tanner on the Glass, Brown off the Bench

The rebounding is the story of the night. Vanderbilt pulled down 48 boards, its best total on the glass since 2023, and grabbed 17 offensive rebounds. Wake had just seven offensive boards and 33 rebounds overall. On a night when the Commodores did not shoot it well, all those extra possessions were the difference.

Tanner led the charge. The point guard grabbed seven defensive rebounds and three offensive ones, made all five of his free throws and finished 6-of-14 from the field. It was not his sharpest scoring night after a 20-point opener, but a guard who rebounds like that changes the math for everybody, ending defensive possessions and starting the break in one motion.

Brown was the spark. The freshman came off the bench for 14 points in 18 minutes, going 4-of-9 from 3, and those two second-half 3s killed Wake's best run of the night. After seven points in the opener, Brown looks like a player who is going to earn real minutes quickly in a rotation that is still sorting itself out.

Glass, the Washington State transfer, had 16 points and seven rebounds, hitting 4-of-11 from deep. Bing posted a career-high 13 points on an efficient 6-of-8 shooting, and Berke Büyüktuncel grabbed seven rebounds, five offensive, with two blocks. Four Commodores finished in double figures.

Where Vanderbilt Still Needs Work

Not everything was clean. Vanderbilt shot 28-of-72 from the field, and several rotation pieces had cold nights. T.O. Barrett went 0-of-4, Büyüktuncel was 2-of-9 after a perfect opener, and the bench bigs struggled to finish. The Commodores also made just 8 of 11 free throws, and they assisted on only 14 of their 28 field goals after piling up 19 assists against Bellarmine.

The good news for Byington is that the defense held anyway. Wake Forest shot 35 percent from the field and 6-of-26 from 3, and the Deacons made only 7 of 14 free throws. Kennedy was the only consistent threat with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting in 37 minutes. The rest of the Deacons went a combined 12-of-39 from the field. Placide added 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks, but nobody else reached double figures. McDowell went 2-of-10 and Carr finished with six. Wake's bench managed eight points; Vanderbilt's put up 21, with Brown alone outscoring the entire Deacons reserve group.

For Wake Forest, the road trip exposed an offense that struggled to create anything beyond Kennedy. The Deacons had won their opener comfortably, but Thursday they ran into a team that could match them physically and beat them on the boards.

What It Means

Through two games, the profile is clear. Vanderbilt can defend, it can rebound and it has real depth. Byington is now 5-0 against ACC teams at Vanderbilt, and this young roster, with seven freshmen and four sophomores, already has a win over a high-major opponent on its resume.

The two games together also tell a story about how this team can win. In the 93-47 rout of Bellarmine on Monday, it was turnovers and transition. Against Wake, it was rebounding and timely shot making. That versatility will matter once the SEC schedule arrives.

The full box score (opens in a new tab) shows a team that still has offensive kinks. The 3-point shooting outside of Glass and Brown was 2-of-7, and the bigs need to finish better around the rim. But winning by 23 on an off shooting night is a good problem to have.

Next up is in-state rival Memphis, a 1-0 team that visits Memorial Gym on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 6:15 p.m. Central. That will be a different level of athleticism, and another chance to see whether this defense and this rebounding hold up against a high-major opponent.

Sources: ESPN box score, Vanderbilt Athletics, The Vanderbilt Hustler, NCAA.com. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Vanderbilt Athletics.