Adam Sparks

USA TODAY Sports

DAYTON, Ohio — Vanderbilt’s first NCAA tournament trip in four years was over in 40 minutes. And veteran-laden Wichita State is heading to the field of 64 to keep their recent strand of success in the Big Dance going.

The Shockers aggressively pulled away from the Commodores, 70-50, in a First Four game on Tuesday night at University of Dayton Arena. It marked the fourth time in Vanderbilt’s past five NCAA tournament appearances that it lost its opening game and this tied for third-largest losing margin in program history.

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Wichita State (25-8), making its fifth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, will play No. 6 seed Arizona on Thursday (8:20 p.m./TNT) in Providence, R.I., in the first round.

Vanderbilt finished the season with a 19-14 record. It went 21-14 with an NIT run last season with nearly the same roster.

Vanderbilt’s Damian Jones, a two-time All-SEC selection, did not score for nearly 26 minutes to start the game, but most of that time was spent on the bench in foul trouble.He tied season low with 5 points on 2-of-6 shooting and was just one-of-seven from the line.

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No Vanderbilt starters scored in double figures. Riley LaChance and Joe Toye led with 10 points each.

Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet, the two-time Missouri Valley Conference player of the year, had 14 points each for Wichita State.

"Fred and I hit a couple of 3s to get us going early on," Baker said. "The momentum shifted slowly and we kind of grasped it and kept on rolling."

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VanVleet’s second three stretched the Shockers’ lead to 41-30 and put Vanderbilt into catch-up mode. The Commodores countered with a 16-6 run that featured three-point plays by Baldwin, Jones and Riley LaChance.

Jones made his first basket of the night with 14:03 remaining. LaChance followed with a 3-pointer, and Jones’ second field goal cut Wichita State’s lead to 47-46.

But the experienced Wichita State shooters caught fire again, nailing three straight 3-pointers and running the lead back to 60-48 with just under four minutes remaining.

“Ultimately we got the lid off the basket,” Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said. “That’s the difference.”

Vanderbilt’s comeback attempt never got off the ground. By the time the Commodores were called for a team technical foul and Wichita State made the ensuing two free throws, the Shockers led 64-48.

"They're a very good defense and they play really physical," LaChance said. "We did get some open looks and nothing happened to fall."

The game started slowly. A flurry of fouls put the first half into an awkward stop-and-start tempo, with neither team gaining much of a flow. The Commodores didn’t even score a point in a fast-break opportunity in the first half.

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Vanderbilt made only five of 13 foul shots to start the night, but it finally went on a 10-0 run late in the first half. The bench sparked the spurt, as subs Joe Toye and Josh Henderson scored eight of the 10 points.

After a timeout, Henderson hit Toye on a back-door cut for a layup and foul that yielded a three-point play. Jeff Roberson’s putback then pushed the Commodores.

Adam Sparks writes for The (Nashville) Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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