Butler outscored Vanderbilt 25-14 in the final 12:29, to defeat the Commodores 76-66 on Thursday in the opening round of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational.

Guard Tyler Lewis lead a balanced Bulldog attack with 15 points, followed by forward Kelan Martin with 14, forward Andrew Chrabascz and guard Kamar Baldwin with 12.

Freshman guard Payton Willis came off the bench to lead all scorers with 17 for the Commodores. Forward Jeff Roberson also cracked double-digits with 11.

The Commodores made an early charge in the second half, scoring the first nine points to knot the score at 43. After a flurry of buckets by both teams, Vanderbilt took its first lead since the 14:45 mark of the first half on a pair of free throws by Willis to take a 52-51 lead.

Then, the Butler defense kicked in only allowing two scores in the next 5:20, reclaiming and stretching the lead to 62-57. Butler then connected on three straight layups by guard Kethan Savage, Martin and Lewis to pull out to a 10 point lead.

From there, they never looked back.

Vanderbilt opened the game with a 7-3 lead, but Butler's outside shooters took advantage of the Vanderbilt 2-3 zone by going on a nine-point run, including 3s from Martin and guard Sean McDermott, to take a 12-7 lead.

Butler extended its first half lead to 31-22 with 5:06 left. Vanderbilt hung around though, thanks to a 3-pointer from freshman forward Clevon Brown, cutting the lead to 37-32. But Bulldogs' point guard, Tyler Lewis, answered with five straight points, as Butler went to the locker room leading 41-34.

Vanderbilt hung tough for much of the game despite a combined seven points from its best two players, guard Matthew Fisher-Davis, who played sparingly, and center Luke Kornet.