NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Norfolk State men's basketball team kept it close in the first half, but Vanderbilt outscored the Spartans by 14 after the break in a 75-52 victory on Friday night at Memorial Gymnasium.
 
In a contest that was part of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational, NSU got 20 points from senior Jonathan Wade, the only player in double figures for the Spartans. He hit 6-of-14 from the floor with eight rebounds as NSU fell to 2-2 on the year.
 
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, improved to 2-1 thanks to 18 points from Matthew Fisher-Davis and a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds from Jeff Roberson.
 
The Commodores shot just 21-of-56 (37.5 percent), but 10 of those buckets came from beyond the arc. The Spartans, though, only connected on 30 percent from the field (18-of-60) and made just two 3-pointers overall.
 
After four minutes without a basket, Vanderbilt hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to get its offense going. NSU junior Dan Robinson had five points in the early going for NSU before picking up his second foul a little more than eight minutes into the contest. Junior Jordan Butler had a putback, and Wade and sophomore Alex Long each went 1-of-2 from the line to give the Spartans a one-point lead with eight minutes left in the half.
 
Wade sank a trey with 7:42 on the clock, the first of nine straight points he scored for Norfolk State. He kept the Spartans in the lead until Vanderbilt scored 10 straight for a seven-point advantage. The Commodores ended the half on a larger 15-3 run to go into the half up 37-28, while Wade had 13 at the break to lead all players.
 
Vanderbilt came out of the locker room on a 9-2 run to open a 16-point lead. Fisher Davis nailed back-to-back 3-pointers less than 30 seconds apart about five and a half minutes into the half to keep the Commodore offense clicking. After Long had a putback two minutes later, the Commodores scored four straight and led by at least 17 and by as much as 24 the rest of the way.
 
After shooting just 30 percent in the first half, Vanderbilt made 46 percent in the second. The Commodores also benefited from a 23-of-28 night from the free throw line.
 
Butler had nine points and Robinson added seven as the duo went a combined 6-of-10 from the floor for the Spartans.
 
For Vanderbilt, Fisher-Davis made four 3-pointers, and Riley LaChance added three as part of a 12-point effort. Luke Kornet added nine points, five rebounds and four blocks, and Djery Baptiste totaled seven points, seven rebounds and three blocks. They helped the Commodores finish with a 9-1 edge in blocks for the night.
 
NSU had just two assists on its 18 buckets.
 
The Spartans will ride up to Indianapolis to play Butler on Monday night at 8:30 in a game that will be broadcast live on FS1.