DENVER - University of Denver senior forward Brianna Culberson (Jefferson City, Mo.) had a season-high 22 points and was one of four Pioneers in double figures in a 70-65 victory over No. 23 Vanderbilt Sunday afternoon at Magness Arena in front of 1,614 fans. The win is the first time that the Pioneers have beaten a top-25 opponent during coach head coach Erik Johnson's tenure.

"Our goal going into the year was to challenge ourselves against better and better competition going into the conference season," Johnson said. "Tonight you saw the benefits of a tough schedule."

Junior forward Kaetlyn Murdoch (Temple, Texas) added 16 points, senior guard Britteni Rice (Pampa, Texas) had 12 points, and freshman guard Quincey Noonan (Broomfield, Colo.) tied her season high of 10 points. Culberson led the Pioneers with seven rebounds and Murdoch added six of her own. Sophomore guard Emiko Smith (Los Angeles, Calif.) led Denver (4-4) with seven assists, helping the Pioneers hand Vanderbilt (4-3) -the reigning SEC Tournament Champions- their third loss of the season.

"The good teams can have down nights and still win," Johnson added. "We are one of the top free throw shooting teams in the country and we shot terrible today, yet we still walked away with this one."

Entering today's contest DU was a top-five free throw shooting team in the country, going 81-of-98 (82.7 percent) from the charity stripe. However, the Pioneers struggled from the line in this one, hitting on 50 percent (12-of-24) of their free throw chances.

DU gained the upper hand early in the first half with a Culberson layup and ran the score to 7-0 before Vanderbilt got on the board with a three-pointer at 18:00. The Pioneers led by as much as eight after a Noonan layup at 16:11 that gave DU an 11-3 lead. The Commodores grabbed the lead at 8:40 and maintained the advantage in the first half until Culberson drained a three-pointer from the corner with three seconds to play in the half, giving the Pioneers a 29-28 going into intermission.

Vandy retook the lead early in the second half and led by as much as 5 with 18:13 to play. However, DU went back on top at 14:59 after a Culberson layup and never trailed again. The Commodores tied the game twice at 48 and 50, but the Pioneers dominated the last seven minutes. Rice and Noonan dropped back-to-back three-pointers to put Denver up by six with 5:16 to play and a Murdoch layup and free throw made for a three-point play that gave DU its largest lead of the game at 10 with 2:51 remaining. The Pioneers closed out the game with some clutch free throw shooting in the final minutes, 

Jence Rhoads led Vanderbilt with 19 points. Hannah Tuomi and Jasmine Lister added 17 and 14 points, respectively. Tuomi led the Commodores with six rebounds.

Denver remains at home, hosting in-state rival Air Force on Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. in Magness Arena. Fans can follow the game on Pioneer Vision, Live Stats and CoverItLive, all through www.DenverPioneers.com.

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