Mark Byington reflects on chaotic finish to upset win vs. Tennessee

Mark Byington pulled off the best win of his short career at Vanderbilt on Saturday, as his Commodores defeated No. 6 Tennessee. The Commodores nearly surrendered an eight point lead at the end, but held on to win 76-75 thanks to a missed free throw.

In his postgame press conference, Byington was thankful to come out on the victorious side, but acknoledged the shortcomings of his team toward the end.

“It was tough,” he said. “There was some frustrating things that happened the last two minutes. There’s some things that are out of your control. If something goes against you and there’s some time that’s still on the clock, you’ve gotta figure out a way. The guys did a good job of being resilient and went to the next play.

“We’ll learn from those situations, too. You learn from the wins and learn from the losses. There was a possession or two you wish you had back. …They gave them the ball at the end. If the ball goes out of bounds, I think Jason Edwards saved it. They got another chance and they saving it and throwing it back. Just little plays and guys kept fighting. It kind of shows who they are. They were brought here for a reason and I heard about those attributes before they got here and they demonstrated that tonight.”

Edwards led Vanderbilt with 18 points in addition to three assists and a pair of rebounds in the victory. The Commodores led 72-58 with 6:41 remaining but would shut down offensively down the stretch as the Vols slowly chipped away at the lead.

Things were getting tense when Vanderbilt fouled Chaz Lanier with two seconds remaining. He made the first free throw to cut it to a one-point lead, but missed the second and time ran out.

With the win, the Commodores improved to 15-3 (3-2 SEC) on the season. That is already six more wins than they achieved last season when they finished 9-23.

Vanderbilt will move on to face No. 4 Alabama at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday in Tuscaloosa. Given the incredible high it is coming off of, it will look to remain level headed as it attempts to pull off another improbable upset.