Dayton overcame an early 16-point deficit and rallied for a 72-67 victory over No. 21 Vanderbilt on Wednesday night at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tenn.

Forward Kendall Pollard scored 21 points to lead the Flyers and guard Scoochie Smith added 13 against the Commodores, who were without injured 7-foot-1 power forward Luke Kornet.

Vanderbilt had its chances late, trailing by four when center Damian Jones blocked a Smith jumper with 49 seconds left and the shot clock running down. But Pollard wound up with the ball after the deflection and buried a contested 3-pointer from the top of the key -- just his second 3-pointer of the year -- putting Dayton up 69-62 with 43 seconds left.

The Commodores fell behind 9-4 early but got its offense going and fixed its defense by switching to man-to-man. They led 38-22 late in the first half thanks to 12 points from Jones and nine from guard Riley LaChance.

But with Jones (18 points) and guard Wade Baldwin (18) on the bench with two fouls each, four Dayton steals in the final 1:03 of the half (two each from Smith and guard Kyle Davis) led to seven quick points, shrinking Vanderbilt's lead to 40-32.

The Flyers picked up where they left off in the second half and retook the lead on guard Charles Cooke's driving layup from the left side with 15:27 left.

Kornet, a junior, has a strained MCL and is expected to miss four to six weeks.