Vandy leader not needed vs. LSU

ATLANTA (AP) — John Jenkins never took off his warmup shirt, cheering on Vanderbilt from the bench.
He wasn’t needed.
The Southeastern Con-ference’s leading scorer sat out the opener of the league tournament Thursday night with an ailing foot, but the Commodores still managed an ugly 62-50 win over LSU.
Jeffery Taylor scored 21 points to lead Vanderbilt, which won without scoring a field goal in the final 5:35. The Commodores (22-9) dominated on the inside against undersized, outmanned LSU (11-21).
Jenkins, averaging more than 19 points a game, sat out after tweaking his left foot in the regular-season finale against Florida last weekend. He could’ve been pressed into duty if needed, but coach Kevin Stallings clearly wanted to give him an extra day of rest before the competition steps up to another level.
Vandy advanced to face Mississippi State in the quarterfinals tonight.
“We feel good about doing it without our leading scorer,” Stallings said. “We were fortunate that our defense was where it needed to be.”
The coach said Jenkins will be evaluated after shootaround before the next game.
After a sluggish start, the Commodores pulled away to lead by as many as 14 in the first half. They stretched the margin to 20 points against last-place LSU, which closed out its second straight 20-loss season after winning the SEC title in 2009.
Andre Stringer led the Tigers with 13 points.
Ole Miss 65, S. Carolina 55
ATLANTA (AP) — Mississippi finally figured out how to win at the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Just keep scoring in bunches.
Chris Warren led with way with 20 points and the Rebels prevailed in a game of spurts, pulling away from South Carolina 66-55 Thursday in the opening round of the SEC tournament.
Ole Miss (20-12) had lost its opening tournament game three years in a row. Now, the Rebels have a chance to win two straight for the first time since 2001, though they’ll be facing No. 15 Kentucky in the quarterfinals today.
The final run was the decisive one for the Rebels, who came into Atlanta knowing their only shot at the NCAAs was probably to win four games in four days. After South Carolina (14-16) closed to 50-45 with 9 1/2 minutes to go, Ole Miss put it away with an 11-1 run.
Georgia 69, Auburn 51
ATLANTA (AP) — Mark Fox hopes his Georgia team is ready to play its best at the most important time of the season.
A healthy Trey Thompkins is a big reason for the coach’s positive postseason outlook.
Thompkins, finally moving past a series of nagging injuries, scored 22 points to lead Georgia past Auburn 69-51 on Thursday in the opening game of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Thompkins, a 6-foot-10 junior, is ranked among the SEC leaders with his averages of 15.8 points and 7.6 rebounds despite battling ankle, shin and toe injuries. He said Wednesday he is finally at full speed for the postseason. He had 10 rebounds to help support his claim.
Georgia (21-10), considered by some to be on the NCAA Tournament bubble, has a chance to again bolster its NCAA hopes when it faces Alabama, the Western Division’s No. 1 seed, in today’s SEC quarterfinals.

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