Twenty hours. That’s how long Vanderbilt got to enjoy its No. 1 seed status before Georgia ripped it away.
Sophomore Dani Carnegie poured in 29 points, and Trinity Turner drilled a midrange jumper with 50 seconds left as unranked Georgia shocked No. 5 Vanderbilt, 76-74, at Stegeman Coliseum on Sunday. The loss comes less than a day after the NCAA selection committee named the Commodores the fourth overall seed in its first top-16 reveal of the season.
Vanderbilt’s No. 1 Seed Case Just Got Complicated
The timing could not be worse for Shea Ralph’s squad. When the committee released its rankings Saturday night, chair Amanda Braun told the Associated Press that it was “that close” between Vanderbilt and Texas on the 1-line, with Thursday’s head-to-head win over the Longhorns serving as the tiebreaker.
That margin is gone now.
Texas rebounded from that loss by grinding out a 65-63 win at Tennessee on Sunday, moving to 24-3 overall while Vanderbilt dropped to the same record. The Longhorns hold a stronger NET strength of schedule. They own wins over UCLA and South Carolina from the Players Era Championship. The Commodores just handed the committee a gift-wrapped reason to flip the script.
Georgia built a 14-point lead behind Carnegie’s first-half explosion, then watched Vanderbilt storm back with a 16-3 run to close the first half. The Commodores eventually grabbed a five-point advantage in the fourth quarter before the Lady Bulldogs clawed back, shooting 56% from the floor while holding the nation’s leading scorer in check.
Mikayla Blakes finished with 27 points but got almost all of it at the stripe. The National Player of the Year candidate went 19-of-20 from the free-throw line on just eight field goal attempts. Georgia’s physical defense forced her into tough looks all afternoon. Justine Pissott added 23 points on five made threes, but the Commodores shot just 37% as a team.
Turner’s go-ahead bucket gave Georgia a 75-74 lead, and after forcing a turnover, Carnegie split a pair of free throws with 22.2 seconds remaining. Vanderbilt had one final chance. Sacha Washington’s floater from the lane fell short off the front rim as time expired.
What This Loss Means for March
The selection committee will scrutinize this one. Losses to unranked teams on the road are the exact blemishes that separate 1-seeds from 2-seeds when the bracket is finalized. Vanderbilt’s résumé still includes wins over Michigan, LSU, Oklahoma, and Texas, but Georgia sat at No. 35 in the NET rankings entering Sunday. This is a Quad 2 loss at best.
South Carolina, meanwhile, took care of business at LSU on Saturday and sits a game and a half clear atop the SEC at 11-1 in league play. The Gamecocks have already beaten both Vanderbilt and Texas this season. The path to a fifth straight SEC regular-season title runs through Columbia.
For Georgia, this is a season-defining win. Katie Abrahamson-Henderson’s squad hadn’t beaten a top-five team since knocking off No. 2 NC State in 2021. Carnegie is averaging more than 18 points per game, and Mia Woolfolk added 19 in this one, including 11 in the fourth quarter. The Lady Bulldogs have now defeated three ranked opponents and sit firmly in NCAA Tournament positioning conversations.
Vanderbilt hosts No. 18 Kentucky next Sunday with plenty to prove. The Commodores were on the verge of a program-defining regular season. Now they’re playing for their bracket life. Texas will be watching closely.